All Around the World
by beautifuldisaster993
Summary: Kira Dickenson joins the BladeBreakers when they're first formed, how will things be different this time around? Told in first person perspective. (Re-write of the first season of BeyBlade) RayxOC KaixOC
1. Forming the Team

**I've had this idea stuck in my head for soooo long now, I finally decided to give it a shot!**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 1: Forming the Team**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BEYBLADE.**

* * *

_Kira_

I lay in my bed in my room, counting the dots on my ceiling.

"Kira, come downstairs, I want to talk to you." I heard my grandfather, Albert Dickenson call for me. I sighed and sat up.

"Coming." I replied hopping up off the bed. My grandfather is, as you may know, the chairman for the BBA, so I figured it would be something to do with the upcoming tournament.

"Ah, there you are my dear." He was in his office, sitting in his chair smiling up at me. I crossed my arms and looked at him, questioningly. "I assume you've heard about the upcoming tournament." I nod, so he continues. "I want you to participate in the team I'm creating. They will be called the BladeBreakers."

"Don't they usually have try outs for things like that?"

"Oh there will be tryouts, my dear." My grandfather had that playful glint in his eye. "But I have full confidence in your abilities as a blader so you won't be needing to try out to be able to blow your future teammates away."

"Won't it seem odd that I'm your granddaughter and I'm just getting on to this team with no need to try out?" I narrowed my blue eyes looking at him. He laughed to himself and stood up, and made his way over to me, patting me on the shoulder.

"Kira my dear, you're missing the point. I don't want anyone to see how good you are so you can be sort of like...a secret weapon."

"Ooooh so you're using me, is that it?" I put my hand on my hip and raised my eyebrow and my grandfather laughed once more.

"I just want you to get out of the house a little more... Ever since..."

"I know, I know. You don't have to say it." I sigh and turn back toward the door. "Just give me a few minutes to get ready." I run back up to my room and put my black & blonde hair up in a high ponytail. (It's blonde underneath the black) I decided to go without make up, because it's not really needed at a beyblade team tryout. I put on a black tanktop and some high waisted jean shorts with some pink and black Nike free runners. I guess I should probably explain who I am, huh? My name is Kira Dickenson, granddaughter to the famous chairman of the BBA, as many people call him, Mr. Dickenson. I'm half japanese and half French. Weird combo, I know, but if you met my parents, well they were the complete essence of weird.

"Hurry up Kira, the limo won't wait forever!" I hear my grandfather call and I grab my purse and run downstairs to meet him.

"Okay okay I'm ready, and I'm sure the limo WOULD wait as long as we needed it to." I grin sliding on my aviators as we walk out the door and climb into the limo and it takes us to our destination.

* * *

"Welcome back everyone to the tryouts for our new star break out team, we have Mr. Dickenson here." The reporter walked over to my grandfather who had a smile on his face as usual.

"I'd like to thank you all for tuning in to the Japanese Regional Qualifying tournament to see who will be participating in this team to beyblade world wide!" The crowd behind him cheered loudly, and I couldn't help but smile. I loved this sport and everything about it. It's always so refreshing to see such a huge following and all the fans who adore my grandfather. I walked over to the window and saw many aspiring beybladers standing around, waiting for their turn to battle. The first battle was between two guys named Max Tate and Kai Hiwatari. I don't know why...but Kai sounded so familiar to me... Anyways, they battled hard and Kai came out on top which by his stats was to be expected. He definitely had some real talent. Next up was this spunky kid named Tyson Granger and this mysterious undefeated blader named Ray Kon. Let me just tell you, Ray is one of the most handsome men I've ever seen. They both caught my eye in the crowd and I was definitely interested in catching this battle. Ray clearly had an advantage over the blue haired boy, beating him easily with his bit beast Driger and he smashed Tyson's blade into oblivion, which would usually mean a forfeit, but then Tyson's friend- Kenny, I believe his name is- came out and fixed his blade within minutes. I was actually quite impressed. So then, the second battle ensued. This time, Tyson had the upper hand, and Ray's quick movements didn't faze him as much. Tyson is a quick thinker and catches onto things I think a lot faster than most people would realize. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty good at analyzing people. I tend to use that to my advantage during blading. And that's it, Ray's blade was out for the count. But he didn't look surprised at all. He actually looked...happy?

"Alright bladers, set up for round three!" I heard DJ Jazz yell in the background, Tyson complied, but Ray didn't move.

What is he thinking? I asked myself.

"I have nothing to prove." The tiniest smirk crossed Ray's face. "I forfeit." I think everyone's jaws dropped at that moment. Ray turned around and walked away but not before saying something that I couldn't catch. Darn, maybe I won't have a cute teammate.. I sighed as my grandfather walked into the room and I heard the automatic door close turned to see him with a pleased smile on his face.

"Is this years tournament entertaining you just as much as it is me?" He chuckled, clearly seeing the bewildered look on my face. "Don't worry Kira, Ray's already agreed to be on the team." I could feel my face heating up and I turned back to the window to look down below. Was I that easy to read? I saw Ray standing and watching the next battle about to ensue. It was Kai versus Tyson. What I didn't know was that this battle would create the biggest rivalry to come to the beyblading world since it first came into existence. Kai and Tyson were obviously well matched in strength and defense. They both put up a strong fight, but Tyson took the first win. Tyson must have gotten cocky because he 'had beaten the unbeatable Kai' (which I learned he had a problem with) because Kai easily beat him the second time around. 'These guys really need to learn to control their tempers and emotions...' I thought to myself smiling.

And the end result was Kai, the champion. Big surprise there. He was ferocious in his beyblading with skill I hadn't seen in all my 17 years of life. My grandfather smiled walking onto the stage with a very upset Tyson yelling at the victorious Kai, words I couldn't make out because they had muted the two boys.

"If I can ask for Max and Ray to come back on stage." My grandfather's voice boomed over the stage. The two boys made their way back onto stage and my grandfather smiled. "I am proud to announce the newest team of the BBA, The BladeBreakers!" The crowd went wild with cheers and I couldn't help but feel a smile break across my face. I had nothing but good feelings about this team, we were bound for nothing but success. "I actually have a little surprise of my own." I guess that's my cue. I walked to the automatic doors which opened when I stood in front of them and walked down the hall, down the stairs and turned the corner. I smiled to the guards standing in front of the entryway to the stage and they nodded at me, smiling. I could still hear my grandfathers voice booming over the stage. I know he saw me from the corner of his eye, as a smile graced his face. "I'd like to introduce the last member of the BladeBreakers, Kira Dickenson." He held his arm out in my direction. I felt the tension growing across the room as everyone stared at me. I knew that their reaction would be unexpected as I hadn't earned my spot on the team in any way, but I was determined to prove it to them that I deserved to be here. I walked over to the boys who all gawked at me, and I smiled, sticking my hand out to them.

"Hi, I'm Kira Dickenson. It's really nice to meet you all." I started to feel really awkward because they were all just staring at me, but Max was the first one to break, and he smiled.

"Hi, I'm Max!" I could sense that he was a really fun, loving person.

"Waaaait a minute, Dickenson?" Tyson yelled out turning to my grandfather pointing at me. "So she just gets this spot handed to her because she's related to you? That's not fair!" He turned to look at me and glared.

"I can assure you Tyson, you wouldn't want her on any opposing team." My grandfather replied to him smiling, and he gave me a small wink. "Think of her as a special weapon you all can use. No one knows about her beyblading skills."

"I promise, I will prove to you that I am worthy of being on this team." I smiled.

"C'mon Tyson, if Mr. Dickenson thinks she has the talent, we should trust him." Ray smiled at me and winked, and I felt my heart leap in my chest. Oh dear lord, please help me from falling for my teammate.

* * *

_Ray_

We were all at Tyson's house, his grandfather had kindly insisted that we all stay there. Not that I really minded. We would all be staying together the whole trip, and the guys seemed to be okay to be around. Even Kira was here at Tyson's house, since Mr. Dickenson had to fly to China early for some preparations for the next leg of the tournament. He didn't want her to be alone at the house, though neither of them would tell us why, we didn't push the subject when it seemed to make Kira a little uncomfortable. Tyson had stopped snubbing Kira and got over the fact that she was Mr. Dickenson's granddaughter. He, her, and Max had all started playing a karaoke game and Kira absolutely fried them in that game. It was pretty funny though, I had to admit, seeing the boys dancing around singing old 90's songs. But now everyone in the house is asleep from what I can tell, it's about 3 in the morning, and it's softly raining outside. Of course, I can't sleep though. I sit up in my bed and stretch my back, my legs sliding over the side and I stand up. I walk out to the hall and hear the rain coming down outside which means that one of the doors is open and I'm not the only one awake. I walk towards the backyard because it sounds like that's where the sound is coming from, and I see Kira sitting on the back porch, leaning back on her hands staring up at the rain falling from the sky. She has her long hair down and wavy, which with her head leaned back it reaches the floor, but just barely. Even though my foot steps aren't making much sound she turns her head to look at me and her beautiful icy blue eyes meet mine.

"You couldn't sleep either?" I asked her, and she smiles shaking her head, sitting up.

"Sadly no, I've had insomnia for a while now." I walk over and sit next to her, feeling the mist of the warm rain hit my skin. I look over at her as she stares back out at the Grangers' backyard. I would never admit this out loud, but she has got to be one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Mainly because of Mariah back home...we were never really together, well official anyways... But I went on this journey for beyblading not to find another girl. "So, why are you up so late, Ray?" I hear her ask me.

"Nerves, mainly. We go to China in a couple of days."

"Well, you seem to be able to hold your own while blading." I see a small smirk grace her lips as she turns her head back to look at me. "Why are you so nervous? Is it the fear of seeing old friends? You are from China, if I'm not mistaken." I smiled at her question.

"Yeah, I am...and yeah I guess I'm a little nervous to see them." She places her hand on my shoulder, something I wasn't expecting.

"We're all here for you Ray. We're a team now, we've gotta have each others backs. It might be difficult to trust us at first, but you can at least have faith that I'll be here for you." I looked into her eyes and nodded, truly believing her.

"So...why can't you sleep?" I asked her, truly curious. The look on her face took a complete 180, and it became strained. Her eyes grew weary and she looked down at the porch, a sad look on her face. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She shook her head and took a deep breath.

"No...I feel that one of you should know...and you seem the easiest to talk to." I saw her hands starting to shake and tears started to form in her eyes. I moved the lantern behind us and grabbed her in a soft hug. "My parents died in a car accident a few months back... I was in the car with them, and somehow I walked away barely with any bumps or bruises. Just a broken arm and a concussion." She whispered and my eyes widened. It made sense why she didn't want to talk about it with anyone, and I honestly felt honored that she would even share this with me, regardless that I was a stranger. I already felt a strong bond forming with her and hugged her tighter. I placed my chin on top of her head.

"I could never imagine what that feels like...but if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you Kira."

"Thank you, Ray." We stayed quiet for quite some time until we figured it was best to at least try and get some sleep.

* * *

_Kira_

"Kira! Get up! We don't have any time to waste!" I opened my eyes and the sun was shining brightly which made me squint and I groaned rolling over onto my stomach stuffing my face in my pillow. Getting out of bed was the last thing on my mind. It was so warm and comfy, almost what I imagine Heaven to be like.

"That's okay, I think I'll just stay here." I yawned closing my eyes again, feeling sleep threatening to overtake me once again.

"If you don't get up, I'm gonna come in there and throw this freezing cold water all over you." This time, I recognized the voice to be Ray's. It had been three days since I joined the BladeBreakers, and I spent almost every waking moment with Ray. He had become what you could call my best friend. Telling him about my parents wasn't easy, but I honestly felt like I could trust the guy.

"You wouldn't dare…" I replied, narrowing my eyes looking at the door, and I saw the handle start to turn, so I jumped out of bed and barricaded the door with my body. "Alright alright I'm up." I heard him laughing on the other side.

"Come out, Kai wants to start training early today." His voice was fading and I assumed he was walking away, so I peeked outside of my room and there seemed to be no one out there waiting to attack me. I sigh with relief and turn back around and close my door. Tying my hair up into a high pony tail, I pull on some black Nike Legend Tight Fit's and a matching crop top which stopped short of my belly button with some black Nike running shoes. Now, I have never lived with a bunch of guys before, so I don't know if this is a normal occurrence, but it has almost been a nonstop warfare of pranks in Tyson's house, and I almost feel sorry for Gramps, because he usually gets caught in the middle of them.

I met the guys out in Tyson's backyard and they were all stretching getting ready for today's practice. It was even earlier than usual, because there was still dew all over the grass.

"So today we're going to run six miles, after that fifty pushups, one hundred and fifty crunches, then we'll go into the dojo and continue." Tyson groaned, and I had to stifle a giggle because of the look on Kai's face that he threw in Tyson's direction and I followed suit with the boys in stretching. "Ready and go." So we all took off, by now used to the route that Kai liked to take so I just jogged at my average pace, which at around five miles I was ahead of almost everyone else (minus Kai and I had almost caught up to Ray) because they had burnt out most of their stamina already. It had been about an hour later when we reached Tyson's house again, and then we started on the rest of the workout. My muscles feeling sore, I felt I should treat myself with a hot bath so I ran back in the house afterwards and locked myself in the bathroom before the guys could claim it for themselves.

* * *

_Ray_

I can't really explain to you what it felt like to be back in China. I was excited, but apprehension also set in after I stepped off the plane. I took a deep breath in and looked around, smiling when seeing familiar things all over. I really couldn't wait to show my new friends around my home, even though Beijing wasn't technically my home but it was close enough. The rest of the team seemed mesmerized by the bustling city and I decided to show them to one of my favorite restaurants. Kira was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt with two golden leopard faces facing each other, some low-rise light colored destroyed skinny jeans that were rolled up at the bottom of the pant leg. She was wearing her hair down, and straight for the first time I had seen and she was also wearing make-up for once which was rare for her. She has some serious natural beauty so she doesn't really need it, but you know women. We got to my favorite restaurant after dropping off our luggage at our hotel and sat down at a table. We all ordered our food and of course, Tyson gobbled down all the appetizer before any of us even got to it. After getting our food, we all dug in. It wasn't a long flight, but we all woke up late, apparently no one remembered to set their alarms the night before and we almost missed our flight, meaning we didn't get any breakfast.

"Wow Kira, I haven't seen you eat like that since camp almost ten years ago." We all looked at Kira who had a stunned look on her face, as her eyes slowly widened and she looked at Kai.

"AHA! That's it! We were at camp together! I can't believe you remembered and didn't tell me you asshole! I've been _trying_ to figure it out for the past week!" She punched him in the arm and a smirk slid across his face.

"I was going to let you figure it out for yourself, but I figured it was a little pathetic that it took you this long." Kira opened her mouth about to say something, but then she shut it and crossed her arms with a pouty look on her face. The rest of us kind of just stared at the two, then Tyson started laughing and it kind of spread around like a contagious bug because before long we were all laughing. Even Kai. It felt good to be able to share this experience with people I got along with so well, but we all know that life doesn't stay drama free forever.

* * *

_Kira_

After we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant that Ray had suggested, which was superb by the way, we were walking around downtown Beijing. Ray had seemed distracted and kept looking behind us. I know he has this ability to sense things, so it just made me all the more curious about what was bothering him.

"Ray are you-"

"There's a beyblade spinning over there." He whispered and ran off down towards an alley, and we all looked at each other, none of us being able to hear it and of course we reached a dead end.

"Ugh, dude all that's over here is rotten fish." Tyson pinched his nose and made a face.

"Yeah, are you sure you're not just exhausted?" Kenny asked him.

"Well well well..." A childish voice echoed over the walls behind us and we turned to see a short kid with green hair standing up on the wall of a building with his arms crossed staring Ray down with a smirk on his face. "If it isn't the traitor himself.

"Traitor...?" I whispered looking over to Ray, who had an angry look on his face. 'What is he talking about?' I asked myself.

* * *

**Okaaay, there's chapter 1! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please _drop me a review_ if you did! Question, should I have Kira battle Mariah or Lee? I can't decide! Thanks for reading! **


	2. Beijing Part I

**All Around the World  
**

**Chapter 2: Beijing Part I**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade, nor do I make money off of this fic.**

* * *

_Ray_

"Kevin..." I hadn't seen the pint sized runt in a few months, and even though he had a cocky smirk on his face, I could see the look of hurt in his eyes.

"I was wondering when you'd show your face here again." Kevin jumped down to the same level if ground we were standing on and walked over to us.

"What's going on?" Kira asked, and Kevin looked up at her, grinning.

"Oh just wait 'til Mariah hears about this, traitor. I'm sure she's going to throw a riot." I narrowed my eyes at the green haired boy.

"Well there's nothing to tell, so go ahead." I crossed my arms and the boy smirked once more.

"Sure Ray, whatever you say. We'll be seeing you again soon. And we'll make sure you regret leaving the White Tigers." Kevin replied as he walked past me and intentionally bumped into me, I turned to watch him go, and saw my team staring at me curiously. Oh boy, how was I ever going to explain this one?

"Don't worry about him Ray. He's just trying to get into your head." Max tried to console me, but maybe Kevin's words got to me because I couldn't get they were somewhat true.

"Come on, let's go look around Beijing a little more." Kira turned around and walked toward the city and we all followed suit. Everyone walked into the shops and bought a bunch of Chinese trinkets, things that were really useless, but tourists always want to buy.

"Oh my gosh! I've always wanted one of these!" I heard Kira squeal and she was jumping up and down in front of a dress shop. "What are these called?" She turned and looked at me.

"It's called a qípáo, but they're also known as cheongsam." I told her and her face lit up.

"You all don't mind do you? I've been dying for an authentic Chinese dress." She had a pleading look on her face and I shook my head with a small smile on my face.

"You guys can go on ahead back to the hotel, I'll stay here with her."

"Oh thank GOD, the last thing I wanted to do was stand around in a dress shop with a bunch of girls." Tyson exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air.

"Don't be mad that you're not in touch with your feminine side, Tyson! It just proves how much more of a gentleman Ray is than you!" Kira stuck her tongue out at Tyson and pulled me into the dress shop and I laughed hearing Tyson yell out in frustration, but when the door closed it drowned out Tyson's yelling and the noise from the bustling streets. "God he's so difficult." I laughed at Kira's remark and nodded my head.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't be Tyson if he wasn't." Kira gave me a "look" and I laughed again, which made her smile as she looked through the dresses. She pulled out a white one with a silver dragon imprinted on it, a black one with silver flowers all over it, a red one with golden flowers all over it and three upside down tear shaped cut puts underneath the neck clips, another white one with black and white flowers stitched into it and a baby blue one with Sakura blossoms on it and a white dragon that wrapped around her torso that stopped at her mid-thigh, and had no sleeves and it was made out of silk. To be honest when she stepped out of the dressing room, my jaw dropped. She looked stunning in it.

"So I guess this is the one?" She asked me twirling around in a slow circle, and I nodded smiling.

"Yeah I think that's the one." She smiled and pulled out her purse but I shook my head.

"I'll pay, don't worry about it." Her eyes widened and I laughed.

"Ray you don't have to! This is really expensive."

"Don't worry about it! I've got it!" I rushed over to the counter and the man at the counter looked stunned by my sudden movements!

"Ray!" Kira yelled as she put the other dresses back in their appropriate spots and ran over to the counter.

"Don't listen to a word she says, I'm paying for the qípáo." I told the man in Mandarin to which Kira narrowed her eyes because I'm sure she couldn't understand, and the man smiled understanding what was going on.

"Sir, please don't listen to him." She slammed down her money, and stared him dead in the eyes. "Just let me pay for it."

"I sorry, I no speak Japanese." The man spoke in broken Japanese and winked at me, ringing up the dress and I paid him.

"You know I'm going to pay you back for this." Kira glared at me while the man gave me my change and I laughed again.

"Kira don't worry about it, knowing you're happy makes me happy. Money is just money." I shrugged.

"Xie xie." (Thank you) Kira bowed to the man, and he bowed his head in response and we left the shop.

"So you do speak Mandarin then?" I asked Kira raising my eyebrow.

"Yīdiān." (A little.) She smiled. "I took classes back my freshman year of high school, but I don't remember much, and when I lived in Paris when I was little, this chef that I was good friends with taught me some words. I guess you're gonna have to tutor me so that you can't speak secret languages around me anymore!"

"I would be glad to." I nodded my head to her, and my stomach growled just as we were walking past a great smelling restaurant. Kira giggled.

"I guess it means that it's time for me to pay you back."

"No no no, I don't think so!" She smirked and grabbed my hand pulling me into the nearest restaurant.

* * *

_Kira_

Ever since that little midget with green hair showed up back in the alley, Ray's been acting really weird... Like he's distracted or stressed out or something. And that kid mentioned some team, the White Tigers or some thing like that. I believe that's the one that Ray said he was from. He thinks that just by buying me a new dress that it'll distract me, because I know he knows I'm the only one that'll notice because the other boys are _way_ too dense to even care. Too bad it's not working! Well, not Kai, but Kai's not here right now, so it doesn't matter. Ugh, the waitress has been by three times already, and I have no idea what I even want. I'm too distracted by Ray's emotions to be able to concentrate. Ray ordered me some Chinese alcoholic drink since I'm not "old enough" to drink here yet, sigh. Alas, youth. Six more months though and I'll be eighteen and free to do whatever I want!

"What will it be?" The waitress comes back with Ray's (my) drink and a water for me (Ray) and she smiles, even though I can tell she's beginning to feel impatient with me. It really wouldn't surprise me if she just wanted to serve Ray.

"I'll just have the dragon roll I suppose." Still feeling undecided but it's my favorite go to sushi roll.

"And I'll have the eel sushi." Ray spots the face I'm making at his request and smiles. I put my hand down on my leg and feel the silk of the dress he bought me, and sigh happily. I finally got an authentic cheongsam! I still can't believe Ray offered, no basically forced me to let him buy it for me. That sort of came out of nowhere, but he _is_ the type of gentleman to do something like that. I reach over and take a sip of the drink and it burns my throat as it goes down, but oh my Lordy is it delicious. "What is this?"

"It's a Mai Tai, I thought you'd like it."

"Well you were damn right, Mr. Kon." I take another few sips and feel my face growing warm from the liquor. "This is soooo good."

"Well I'm glad you enjoy it then." He smiles and takes a drink of the water.

"So, tell me about the White Tigers." I say, taking a bite of our appetizer, calamari tempura. I see him freeze, but keep my eyes on him as he looks down at the table. "It'll make you feel better if you talk about it, you know."

"Yeah I guess you're right." He sighs. "I've been friends with them for all my life. There's Lee, Gary, Kevin and... Mariah. They're all really good beybladers and I love them dearly, but I just... I couldn't... I dunno."

"You had to leave because you didn't feel like your own person. You wanted to become a stronger blader, am I correct?" I answered for him, and he looked up at me surprised.

"Y-yeah, how'd you know?"

"I left my old team for similar reasons. Well, that and they have horrible teammate skills, but regardless, I told you before, you have my support Ray." I smiled and Ray shook his head.

"They think I'm a traitor and that I left just so I could join the BladeBreakers."

"Well, I'll bet that you'll get stronger by facing teams worldwide and training with us, won't you?"

"Yeah I guess so..." Ray murmured, looking down, and our waitress brought us our food. We ate and

I got him to talk a little bit more about his home village. His face lit up with happiness recalling the memories, and I can tell he misses it, a lot. We paid for our food and then left the restaurant and went back to the hotel. The others still weren't back in their room, so Ray and I decided to hang out in my room until they did.

"Why is your room so much better than ours?" Ray pouted flopping on my bed onto his back and I smiled, taking off my shoes, and I went to sit next to him on the bed.

"Because my grandpa's paying for this." I stuck my tongue out at him. "And because I'm better than you are!"

"Oh is that so? Well you better have the skill to back up your words!"

"I do, don't even worry about that." I winked turning on the TV and changed it to the BeyBlading News Network. I turned to lay on my stomach and lay my chin on my arms as they recapped from when the BladeBreakers were formed and how exciting the Asian portion of the tournament was supposedly going to be. I felt tension in the air rise from Ray as they began to mention the White Tigers. There they were, a really tall chubby one, the short green haired midget, a toned up one with a big nose and a bubble-gum pink haired girl. That must be Mariah, I turned my head slightly to look at Ray who was staring down the screen. I pushed myself up into my knees and crawled behind Ray. "Take your shirt off." I demanded.

"W-what?!" He asked me, his head snapping back to look at me as his body slightly turned.

"Don't get any wrong ideas, I'm just going to give you a massage, you look like you could really use one. Now take it off, or I'm gonna take it off for you!" Ray sighed and complied taking off his shirt, and I ran over to the dresser where I had put my lotion and squeezed some onto my hands and started to squeeze and rub the muscles in his shoulders and back. I was most definitely right, his back was _very_ toned and very very tense. Probably from all the stress he had been dealing with recently. "You shouldn't let people get to you so much, it really effects your body and mind." I whispered, working my hands all over his back and rubbing out the tenseity from his muscles, and he was silent, although I knew he was taking in what I had said.

"You're really good at this." He said after a while, and I blushed at his compliment.

"Yeah, well I know how to work my hands." I smirked to myself and started laughing as I saw him start to tense up again, knowing that sent the wrong image into his head. He turned around on the bed with his legs crossed indian style.

"Thank you, Kira. I really needed that." I smiled at him, and nodded.

Now, I'm not sure what it was exactly that made me do what I did next. Maybe it was the fact that I was slightly intoxicated, maybe it was the fact that he looked so incredibly sexy shirtless and his beautifully crafted abs were calling out to me, but I really couldn't resist and I kissed him. Yes, I know, I kissed THE Ray Kon. I could feel the surprise in his body as he tensed up, and his hands slowly rose up to my arms, but he didn't push me away. In fact, he pulled me closer. It's as if he had been wanting to do that but couldn't figure it out if I wanted to as well, or maybe he didn't want to cross that line in our friendship. Irregardless, the kiss was amazing and I had never felt anything so electric and intense in my life. It first started out soft and sweet, but then once he licked my lips asking for entrance, it heated up and I felt him slowly lowering me to the bed, one hand was behind my head and the other was on my right hip, sending chills down my spine, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He moved his lips down the side of my face as he lightly kissed my jawline and then where my jaw and neck meet, right below my ear, causing me to let out soft moans. Then, of course ruining the moment, Tyson started banging on the door to my room.

"Kira! Ray! Are you in there?! Ugh, where the hell could they be?" Both of our eyes shot open and Ray jumped off of me as if just realizing what had been going on, and ran over to throw on his shirt, his face as red as a tomato. I sat up and straightened out my hair, silently watching him. He walked over to the door and turned giving me a small smile.

"G'night Kira."

* * *

_Ray_

I walked down the hall and went outside to take a breather for a few minutes. I can't believe I just kissed Kira, well she kissed me, but it doesn't matter. We're teammates. I'm not going to lie that the thought hasn't crossed my mind, but we're in the middle of a tournament and I need to focus. The only person I've ever been romantically interested in and romantic WITH has been Mariah. We lost our virginities to each other, and I'm sure if she found out... Let's just say it probably wouldn't be pretty for either girls. And I'll probably be facing them tomorrow at the Asian tournament.

I just need to go to sleep and everything will be okay. I walk into the room and instantly Tyson jumped off the bed, pointing at me. I give him this weird look.

"Uhhh are you okay?"

"Where have you been dude?! We've been looking for you and Kira all night."

"We were at the dress shop and then we went to get some dinner and then came back here and you guys weren't here so we went to her room and watched the BNN." I shrugged and Tyson's eyes widened. It's not like I was lying.

"You mean you went to go get food...and didn't include me?" I saw fake tears forming at Tyson's eyes and rolled my eyes. What that boy wouldn't do for food.

"Hey Tyson calm down, we got food ourselves." Max called from his bed.

"What did you guys do all afternoon?" I asked sitting down on a chair and taking off my shoes, finally getting to relax.

"We went to go see the Forbidden City, which we got kicked out of thanks to Tyson." Kenny looked over at Tyson and I swear there was a glare coming from him underneath his massive glasses.

"Then we went to the Great Wall, and we began to walk it but Tyson got tired and lazy and so we left." Max chimed in and I laughed.

"Seems like you guys had an eventful afternoon." Kai stepped out from the shower and I headed for the bathroom.

"We need to get to sleep, we have to get up early for the tournament tomorrow." Kai told us as he walked over to his suitcase and folded his clothes putting them away.

"Yes SIR!" Tyson jokingly saluted him and I laughed again closing the bathroom door.

* * *

_General POV_

"Weeeeeelcome back everyone to the Asian Tournament! Up first today we have the BladeBreakers up against the unbeatable Tall Boys!" Brad spoke into the intercom. He and AJ went back and forth between each other getting the home viewers excited for the upcoming battles. The BladeBreakers sat in their box across the ring from the Tall Boys who had grins all across their faces, most of them were staring down Kira, which made her feel on edge. She was wearing a long black tank top with a huge white diamond on it that faded out to be almost see-through at the bottom with the words "WANT IT SO BAD" written into random parts of the diamond, and some yellow super skinny jeans with some purple and black Nike Air Revolution's, her hair was tied up in a high pony tail and her bangs were framing either side of her face. Tyson was standing up and hopping on the balls of his feet punching imaginary people in the faces, feeling his adrenaline rush.

"Let's get this over with so we can beat the White Tigers already!" Ray had had his eyes closed and seemed to be in meditation when his eyes snapped open and he turned his head to look at Tyson with an angry look on his face.

"Don't even think that way Tyson, you have no idea how much power they have. I'm going up first." He stood and walked toward the ring as one of the guys from the Tall Boys did. His teammates watched him.

"What's with him?" Tyson asked after making a face at his friend.

'He seems so stressed out...' Kira thought sighing. 'He doesn't deserve this.'

'Does the White Tiger team still have it's claws in you Ray?' Kai thought, keeping his eyes on the battle preparing to ensue.

"I don't think he likes to talk about his old team, Tyson." Kenny whispered over to Tyson and the bluenette boy rolled his eyes.

"Just calm down, we are all on the same team after all." Max reasoned with them, and Tyson nodded, finally shutting up. The stadium rose from underneath the boys as Ray and his opponent's faces were both shocked to see the Jagged Rocks stadium greet them. The stadium had mountains and mountains piled into it with rivers running through the mounds.

'Hehe alright BladeBreakers, make me proud.' Mr. Dickenson thought happily as he twisted his mustache. 'My dear Kira, I hope you decide to show yourself at the right time. I have no worries that you will blow everyone away. You may even shock yourself.'

"First up is Ray Kon against his opponent Andre Dissentio!" Brad yelled into his microphone as DJ Jazz walked up onto the stage decked out in Chinese gear.

"Alright bladers, ARE YOU READY?!" The crowd cheered and they begun the count down as Andre unleashed his blade as did Ray.

'I can't let this guy psyche me out...' Ray watched Driger fly into the arena as his and Andre's blades flew towards each other and collided sending both of them flying and Tyson jumped out of his seat. "You're mine." Ray narrowed his eyes. "It's time for the Tiger Claw attack. Get him Driger!" As Driger flew towards Andre's blade, as the blade grew in size and spikes started to come out. Kira's eyes widened as she stood and yelled out.

"Ray, watch out!" But it was too late, Driger had already flown into the blade and it sent him flying, his blade taking damage.

"How did he do that?!" Tyson asked, astonished.

"Something's not right with them..." Kira murmured and she looked up at Andre who was smirking, barely blinking an eye to the battle. Ray's blade landed on the edge of a cliff about to fall off into the rushing river, but he claimed control over his blade and sent it back in the opposite direction.

"Heh heh heh, ready to give up yet?" Andre asked as his blade was getting closer and closer to Ray's but just as it was about to hit, Ray's blade darted in the opposite direction again, and Andre's eyes flared. "Hey, get back here!" Andre's blade followed after him in a straight path destroying all the the mountains in it's path. His eyes were darting all around trying to find Ray's blade but it was nowhere to be found. "Huh, where did he go?"

"Now it's my turn. Driger, Tiger Claw attack!" Ray yelled and Driger made it's appearance and rammed towards the other blade electricity flying all around it, Driger slammed into Andre's blade making it lose control, the blade flew towards a mountain, and the spikes on the blade sliced the mountain in half, causing it the collapse on Andre's blade which in turn caused the blade to stop spinning.

"Yes!" Tyson and Kira both yelled at the same time, and Andre started yelling out of fury, his fists clenching.

"What an awesome opening battle!" AJ yelled over the intercom, and the crowd was going wild. DJ Jazz wiped the sweat from his brow and then pointed towards Ray with a huge grin on his face.

"The winner of the first round is Ray from the BladeBreakers!" Kenny and Max were cheering from behind him and Tyson had a huge happy grin on his face, his faith temporarily restored in his teammate.

"Next up, from the BladeBreakers is Max Tate and from the Tall Boys, Waylan Guzman!"

"Let's see if you can handle the heat, blondie." Waylan had a Spanish accent to his voice and was very tubby and mean looking. Immediately after they released their beys into the stadium an immense wave of heat hit everyone from Waylan's blade. Every time Max tried to get close to him, it was like another wave of heat would blow and knock him back.

'This isn't fair, I can't get close to him.' Max gritted his teeth, trying to think of any possible move he could make. "Ugh I don't think I can take this..." Max fell to his knees from the heat, and started to feel woozy. Meanwhile, Waylan was grinning.

"Just a little longer and the heat will suck up your beyblade's energy completely." Kira had taken out a fan and was fanning herself watching them.

'With the gravitational rotation of his blade, even he won't be able to withstand it for much longer... This is all just a waiting game. Just hold out a little longer Max.' Tyson reached over and grabbed her fan and started fanning himself, his tongue sticking out of his mouth like a dog. "Hey! Give that back!"

"I have had ENOUGH." Max forced himself to stand on two feet, sweat dripping down his face. "Go, attack him Draciel!" Spurts of Max's blade were flying all over the arena but Draciel complied and flew forward towards Waylan's blade which was significantly cooling down and you could see the panicked look on his face.

"No! This isn't happening!"

"Finish him off Draciel!" Max commanded and, that Draciel did. Their blade's collided one last time and Waylan's blade flew past his face, leaving Max the winner.

"How did you beat the heat?" Waylan yelled, confused, not ready to accept defeat.

"Thank God that's over! Max is the WIIIINNNEEEEER!" DJ Jazz exclaimed. Max started to waiver in his standing so Kira jumped up and ran over to catch him.

"Thanks Kira, I guess the heat got to me." Max put a hand up to his head, and Kira shook her head smiling.

"You did wonderfully, I'm so proud of you!"

"It was sloppy, you need to work harder." Kai crossed his arms and looked at Max with hard eyes as the others walked over to him.

"Kai!" Kira turned her head to glare at him.

"Give him a break, he did a really good job." Ray also stepped up to defend his friend.

"No guys, it's okay. Kai you're the team leader, so if you say I need to work harder I will." Max stood up and smiled at Kira. "Thanks again though."

"Well, it looks like you're up next Tyson. Are you ready?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna show them-"

"Actually, would you guys be okay with me going up to battle?" Kira asked them, they all looked to stare at her with wide eyes, as Kira turned her attention to the last opponent who whistled at her and winked.

"What do you think Kai?" Kenny asked him. Kai looked back and forth between the two and nodded.

"Fine, but Kira, don't fuck this up." Kira looked back at her old friend and narrowed her eyes at him, but then saw a small smirk come onto his face.

"I'll try my best to try not to ruin your perfect streak, Hiwatari." Kira waved him off nonchalantly and turned back toward her opponent, reaching into the pouch that sat on her hip and twisted her baby blue and black blade onto her black launcher. "I know you were looking forward to facing Tyson, I hope I'm not a disappointment." Her icy blue eyes connected with her opponent, Tommy's stone cold black ones. He smirked and spun around revealing his launcher that was located on the wraps on his legs.

"Actually, I was hoping I would be battling you."

"What do you know folks! We get to finally see the one and only Kira Dickenson blade, though her style is not known, against Tommy, a master martial artist!"

'What's this guy got up his sleeve?' Ray wondered to himself watching the two. 'Every single one of them has had an advantage that is supposed to help them beat us.'

'You better not lose this one Kira.' Tyson was sitting in his seat tapping his foot impatiently, as he had been waiting to blade all day!

"If you two are ready, 3, 2, 1, LET IT RIP!" Kira and Tommy ripped their blades, and they flew into the stadium.

* * *

**Allllright. I hope you all enjoyed and got my little puns I randomly threw in there :) I figured out who I'm going to have Kira battle against in the White Tigers. I originally wanted it to be this chapter, but then I realized how long this one was getting. So next one will be even more White Tiger drama, and how will Kira do against Tommy? Yeee, _get me to 5 reviews and I'll update_ ;) thanks again for reading!**


	3. Beijing Part II

**Hey guys! I decided to drop an update for y'all a little earlier :) I also have the next chapter planned out, but we'll see how many reviews I get, and that will depend on how fast I update. Please enjoy!  
**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 3: Beijing Part 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BeyBlade, nor do I make money off this fic.**

* * *

"LET IT RIP!" Kira and Tommy released their blades and they flew into the stadium, Kira's instantly flew on top of one of the mountains and landed with precision.

"She made that landing with her first shot..." Max whispered aloud, his eyes wide.

"Well folks, it looks like the beginning of a very intense battle between the beautiful Kira Dickenson and the intense martial artist Tommy Cruz." Brad said into the microphone.

"You're right, Brad! I can't wait to see what happens." AJ agreed eagerly.

"Looks like you're not all for show, I'm impressed. But you're still not gonna beat me. Sorry I'm gonna have to cut this battle short and get revenge for my teammates. I don't mean to embarrass you, princess."

"_Please_, do not call me that." Tommy's blade was circling around the mountain that Kira's blade was resting on, and Kira smirked. "Let's get this battle started then." Her blade flew off the edge of the mountain and to the ground below where it sped right next to his and darted off.

"Oh I get it, you're afraid of me, don't worry. I won't destroy you, that badly." Tommy grinned winking, showing some of his disorderly teeth, and Kira shivered.

'I'm sure there was some disgusting underlying message to that. Gross.' Kira shook her head. 'I need to focus.' Tommy's blade followed after Kira's and her blade suddenly stopped in it's place and Tommy's blade stopped short of hers. "Get him Draiga!" Kira's blade sped up and flew towards Tommy's and it began to push his blade back toward the edge of the cliff.

'She's got to have some serious power, unless Tommy's letting her do that...' Ray thought watching the battle with a close eye.

"You're strong, princess. But brute strength doesn't win a beyblade battle!" Tommy grinned, just as his blade was about to be pushed over the edge, it hopped up and over Kira's blade.

"What? Now are you running scared?" Kira grinned. "Good, because I'm about to knock you out." Kira's blade darted after Tommy's and pushed him back with extreme force. Her blade started to glow a light blue color, and Kira smirked. "I'd like you to meet my bit beast, Draiga. ATTACK!" Her blade started spinning at an unreal speed and literally started shaving down the metal on his blade and pushed his blade into the river that was rapidly flowing behind it.

It was silent as it took everyone a few seconds to realize what happened, but then it hit them and a cheer carried over the crowd and the BladeBreakers ran out to congratulate her.

"That was amazing Kira!" Max cheered.

"We're so proud of you!" Ray smiled giving her a hug and Kira blushed.

"Thanks Ray." She looked back to Kai who had a surprised look on his face. "So, Mr. Team Leader, does that mean you approve?" She winked at him, and his face returned to it's stoic look.

"Hn, you didn't need to mess around like that. You could have really cost us." Kira rolled her eyes and turned back around.

"Come on guys, let's go celebrate!"

"That's it folks! The Asian tournament will continue in two days, with the BladeBreakers against the White Tigers!" AJ announced happily and Brad cheered along with him.

* * *

Lee was pacing around the White Tigers' hotel room feeling worried.

"Did you see the power they had...? How are we supposed to beat that?" Lee whispered to himself, feeling the stress coming on strong.

"Lee don't worry about it, we'll figure it out." Mariah placed her hand on his shoulder and he shrugged away.

"If Ray hadn't been a traitor and left us, we wouldn't have anything to worry about right now." The elder sibling grumbled to himself as Mariah sighed from the window sill and looked up at the sky and moon above that shined brightly.

'Oh Ray, why did you have to leave? We could still be together now, but you just had to go...' Mariah thought sadly and walked over to her bed and sat down.

'I think I know how I can fix this, if I destroy Ray's blade, we've got nothing to worry about!' Kevin grinned looking around. Gary was already passed out asleep with a giant bear in his arms and Mariah and Lee were in their pajamas getting ready for bed. 'I've just got to wait for the others to go to sleep, and I'll take care of Ray and those dumb BladeBreakers will be begging for our mercy! They have no idea what's in store for them.'

* * *

_Kira_

All I could hear when I awoke was shouting. My eyes shot open and I heard footsteps running down the hall towards the exit to outside. It had to be my teammates, so I groggily sat up and rubbed my eyes. I got out of bed and looked around, confused. 'Whats going on?' I thought to myself. I opened my door and looked down the hall. The boys' door was wide open, so I frowned and looked inside, there was no one in there, then I walked to the nearest exit and there was everyone, including the green haired midget from before standing outside. I saw Ray staring at his blade, looking tense and Kai was talking to him in a very low, quiet voice.

"What's going on?" I asked them. Kevin had a victorious look on his face with a smug smile.

"Go back to bed Kira, this doesn't concern you." I practically scoffed at Kai's remark and rolled my eyes.

"Please Kai, if it concerns my teammates it concerns me." Ray looked up at me, and I saw disappointment in his eyes, which confused me even more.

He started walking towards the stairs and came up them and passed me heading towards the door. I followed after him and touched his arm with my right hand. "Ray, what happened?" He turned back to look at me with an angry look on his face, but I'm not sure exactly if it was directed at me.

"I lost Driger." He stated simply, and I could see the empty look in his eyes. He stared at me for a few more seconds and then started walking towards the boys' room before slamming the door shut. I stared after him, shocked at what he had said. Could he have really...lost Driger? I've never even heard of a blader losing a bit beast all my life, other than when bladers abuse their beasts powers, but Ray's not that type of guy... I turned to look behind me, then ran back outside. Kevin had ran off, apparently Tyson had beaten him and got back whatever it was that Kevin had tried to steal from us, an information disk of some sort.

"What the hell did you say to him Kai?" I jumped down from the staircase to the ground below where all my other teammates were conversing. Kai had been deep in thought with his arms crossed, and he opened his eyes to look at me. "I've never seen him so upset, what the _hell_ did you say?"

"I told him that he had the chance to beat Kevin, but he let him win because he is weak." I stared at Kai, dumbfounded.

"The guy _just_ lost his bit beast and you _said_ that to him? Are you insane? No wonder he's so pissed! You may be "team leader" but that doesn't mean you can go around punching everyone in their emotional gut!" I turned around and started to walk back up towards the stairs.

"If he hadn't let Kevin win, he wouldn't have lost his bit beast. Don't baby him just because you _like_ him, Kira." The last sentence made me stop in my tracks for a second, and my jaw clenched. I was tempted to turn around and confront the asshole, but that would only prove that he's right. I don't like Ray Kon. I DON'T like Ray Kon. There's no way I like Ray Kon... Okay, maybe I do, but just a little. But Kai doesn't have to know that.

After getting back inside the hotel, I walked down the hall to my room and stared at the boys' door. I sighed, wanting to knock on it to check on Ray, but I knew it was probably best to let him be. I pushed the door to my room back open and lay on my bed. I was fully awake now, and I knew sleep wouldn't come easily, but it eventually did and I passed out, mentally exhausted, and definitely not prepared for what was to come later that day.

* * *

It was about 11:30 in the morning when I finally woke up, and I stretched, popping my back. Why hadn't Ray come to wake me up like usual...? Well, I may as well get ready for the day. I went in my suitcase and grabbed a light blue striped (the lighter stripes were almost see through) tank top with an anchor on the front of it, and some dark wash damaged/ripped shorts. I headed to the bathroom and took a quick shower, washed my face and left my hair to air dry. I lined my eyes with some eye liner, and on the bottom used some teal eyeliner, curled my lashes and slipped on my black vans then headed out to find where my teammates were. I found them in the lobby of the hotel, conversing. Max, Tyson, Kai, and Kenny, but oddly enough, Ray was missing.

"Morning guys, what's up?"

"Oh uh, hey Kira." Tyson seemed nervous, and I looked to the others, confused.

"What's the matter?" I looked to Max for an answer, but he just scratched the back of his neck and avoided eye contact with me. "Guys...what's going on?" I narrowed my eyes and looked at Kenny, which started to make the short red head nervous, and he laughed nervously.

"Well uh, as you can probably guess, Ray uh... left the team." My eyes widened as I looked to my teammates, who STILL couldn't look me in the face.

"He did WHAT?" I looked at Kai who was the only one who didn't seem to have a problem looking at me. "And you just LET him leave?"

"He was gone before we woke up this morning. All he left was this note." Kai held it up and I snatched it from his hand as I read it over, but not before giving our oh so cold team leader a glare that would have killed him if looks could do so.

'I'm leaving the BladeBreakers.. I don't feel right about being here ever since Driger left me. Send Kira my regards. Ray.' I stared at the paper and read it over about ten times before turning on my heel and heading for the exit.

"Kira, don't do it..." Kai said to me in a warning time, but I ignored him. There's no way Ray would know we want him back if we didn't at least try...

"Wait, where are you going?!" Max called and chased after me.

"Where else? Going to get Ray back, duh."

"Wait for meeeee!" Tyson also followed after me, and Kai stood behind sighing angrily.

We were really lucky Ray had told me so much about his old life, we probably would have never found his old training spot, and I can only thank God that he taught me a little Chinese before he ran off; otherwise we would have been completely fucked.

"So uh, you think Ray's up there?" Tyson scratched the side of his head as he and Max looked up to the top of the mountain above.

"I'm sure of it!" I nodded before starting to climb up the mountain.

"Wait, this can't be safe Kira!" Max looked nervous and I turned to look at him.

"Do you wanna get Ray back or not? We don't have a team if he's not here with us, we're not the BladeBreakers unless we have every single one of us." I looked back up toward the top of the mountain and sighed. I so did not sign up for this...

* * *

_Ray_

"I've gotta train to get Driger back. I'm useless to the BladeBreakers if I don't have him..." I sighed, ripping my blade into the self-made beybowl in front of me. I was standing on the ledge of a mountain, my favorite place to train away from the grounds back home. My thoughts kept going back to Kira and how she would feel about me leaving, but that doesn't matter now, because there's no way I can face her if I don't have Driger, I'd be too much of a disappointment. "Driger attack!" I saw a pink blade fall from above and my heart jumped in my chest as I realized the only person it could be. "Galux..?" I looked up and saw her standing there, looking beautiful. Someone I hadn't seen in months. "Mariah.." She jumped down from above and she landed on the other side of the beybowl with an angry look on her face. "What are you doing here...? I thought we were enemies."

"Galux, destroy his blade." Her arms crossed and she wouldn't look up at me, she just stared at the blades in front of us.

"What are you doing...? I don't think this has anything to do with you."

"Heh, this has everything to do with me, Ray! Mountain Cat Attack!" Her blade flew rapidly at mine and smashed into it, causing my blade to stop.

"Mariah! Do you mind explaining what you're doing?" I asked, glaring at her. Why was she interrupting my training? She walked over and grabbed her still spinning blade and mine, and handed mine to me.

"You're welcome." She said in her sing song voice and gave me that smile of hers and I couldn't help but smile back, grabbing her in a hug. "It took me forever to find you. I almost thought that you might have flown back home... So why did you run away?"

"You know why..." I whispered. "I'm useless to them without my bit beast." I pulled back and she looked up at me.

"So you ditched them... Well you did the same to us. What, did you think it'd be different this time? Two wrongs don't make a right Ray. Okay, reality check." Mariah placed her hands on her hips and paced past me. "So you lost to Kevin on purpose didn't you? I can't honestly believe you fell for his stupid sympathy trick. So why'd ya do it Ray? Why did you lose to Kevin?" I answered her with silence, still staring at the rock wall of the mountain in front of me. "So Ray...no more beating around the bush... Come back to the White Tigers. Everything can go back to the way it was before! No hard feelings or anything, we can just forget anything ever happened." I sat and stared at the rock wall taking in everything she said and sighed, sitting on the ground and I felt her come to sit next to me and she put her arm around my shoulder, and I placed mine around her waist, pulling her close.

"I really do miss you guys, and I definitely miss being a White Tiger..." It's not like the BladeBreakers would miss me, right? I'm sure they've barely noticed I'm gone.. Maybe I _should_ go back to the White Tigers...

"WHAT did you say?" That deep voice was unexpectedly familiar. Both Mariah and I turned to see Kira staring us down, standing on top of the ledge we were on with Tyson climbing up next to her and Max next to him. "So you're jumping ship, are you? How dare yo- oh!" Tyson's grip on the ledge slipped and Kira and Max hurried to both grab a hand.

"Oh no you don't!" Kira winced as she and Max pulled him back up. "After this, you're officially going on a diet. Jeez Ty..."

"Hey! You get back up here!" Max laughed pulling him up. Tyson wiped his jeans off and glared in my direction.

"I can't believe what I just heard. Maybe what we've been hearing about you is true."

"Hey, I'm no good for your team anymore."

"No Ray, you're not on their team any longer." Mariah placed her hand on my shoulder, and I saw Kira's hand ball into a fist as she also glared in my direction. Why don't they understand...?

"Oh, so that's how it is! You decide to ditch us for that team of-" Max slapped his hand over Tyson's mouth, and I narrowed my eyes. What exactly was he going to say..?

"Ray, I may not show it as much as Tyson, but I don't understand how you can do this to us after all we've done for you...? We thought you were our friend, our teammate.. We didn't even care about your bit beast? How could you do this to _Kira_? She was the one who led us here to find you..." Max looked over to her who now had her arms crossed and eyes closed, much like Kai probably would have been, had he been here. "And now you're telling me, you're leaving us for them?"

"But it's not what it looks like..." I whispered.

"Then what _does_ it look like Ray?" Kira opened her blue eyes and stared into mine. Her voice was firm and hard, I had never heard her speak like that before. "How about this, I have a proposition for you."

"No, Ray..." I heard Mariah whisper from behind me and I felt her grip tighten on my shoulder, but I continued to stare Kira in the eyes.

"How about a battle between Tyson and yourself? He beats you, you come with us, you beat him, you can go back to your mediocre Tigers team, and we will forget this ever happened." Mariah started to growl a little and I placed a hand on hers.

"Hey, I'm game." My eyes slowly traveled from Kira to Tyson as I felt Mariah's hand lift off my shoulder and I saw her walk and face Kira, who was probably two inches taller than Mariah.

"How about you blade me instead? Same deal."

"This isn't about you Mariah, I want to do this myself."

"But Ray," she turned and looked at me and whispered. "You don't even have your bit beast..."

"I can do this Mariah, believe in me." She nodded sadly and walked to stand behind me once again.

* * *

_Main POV_

Tyson and Ray stood across from each other, both preparing to rip their blades.

"You can do this Tyson!" Max cheered from beside Tyson and Kira was standing a little ways back, watching the battle about to unfold in front of her.

'Why wouldn't he tell me that he was intimate with this Mariah girl...? I would have backed off if only I had known. Ugh I can't believe him! Stop concentrating on this, Kira.. That's not what is important. Tyson, you need to win this for our team.'

'I can do this, I just need to concentrate...' Ray closed his eyes and opened them as Max counted down and Ray and Tyson ripped their blades out and they spun rapidly. "Get him Driger!" Driger flew towards Dragoon and knocked him back a few feet and Tyson smirked.

"You can't bring me down, Ray! Dragoon, Storm Attack!" The winds above the mountains started to pick up, and both Max and Mariah held their hands up to their heads, trying to control their hair.

"Aww man, this is gonna mess up my hair!" Max whined.

"Nice try with your Storm Attack, Tyson. I've seen tricks like that a hundred times! Driger, Tiger Claw!"

"No, that's not possible!" Tyson gritted his teeth as Dragoon started to waiver and Ray's blade crashed into a nearby rock causing pieces of it to fall and hit Tyson's blade which made it fly to Tyson as he caught it.

"And the winner is, Ray!" Max announced and Tyson gave Ray a hard look.

"Yaaaay! Welcome back to the White Tigers, Ray!" Mariah cheered throwing her hands up in the air.

"Looks like you won fair and square dude. Congrats." Ray walked over by Mariah and looked out over the horizon before turning back to look at Tyson.

"I've made my decision, if you're interested Tyson."

"Like I said, dude. No hard feelings. But just so you know, we really wanted you back, bit beast or no bit beast." Ray's eyes widened.

"You serious?"

"Yeah." Tyson nodded. "Do you think we'd come all the way out here looking for you if we weren't? Kira went looking for you first thing when she found out you left..."

"Speaking of which, where did she go?" Max turned his head and looked both directions. The girl was gone.

"I didn't know that.." Ray whispered. He turned and looked at Mariah. "I won't be coming back with you. I think I've found a new home. I sure hope we can stay friends after all this Mariah." The bubblegum headed girl's eyes widened and she gasped.

"F-friends..?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I think that's all we can be right now. You'll always have a special place in my heart though." Ray smiled and Mariah stared at him with sad, longing eyes and nodded.

"If you say so Ray..."

* * *

_Kira_

Two days had passed since we Ray rejoined our team. I had successfully been avoiding Ray since he came back by staying in my room whenever possible. Clearly, I had to leave my room whenever we would train (which Kai had pushed us all really hard for the upcoming battles) and also to go get food with my teammates. Max had filled me in on what happened after I left, which was right after the battle started. I couldn't bare to see the outcome of the battle, I had had a feeling Ray would win. He always finds that power deep down inside of himself, which I guess is a good thing because usually it helps him fake out his opponent and gets him the win. I slipped on a black see through tank top that had a large cut out in the back and flowed down to my midthigh with white large skulls and random sized teal and baby blue skulls all over it, with a teal bandeau underneath, and some black shorts that had studs on the back pockets and underneath the front pockets and for shoes I had on some black and white Nike Free Runners. I lined my eye with eyeliner and curled my lashes and left my hair down and straight and then went to go meet the others down in the lobby. Today would be the last day in China, unless we tie with the White Tigers because then we'd have to come back tomorrow and face them again.

Much to my dismay, Ray was downstairs with the others, sans Tyson, and they all seemed to be waiting impatiently.

"Where's Tyson?" I asked, looking at Max.

"Guess. He woke up late and wouldn't take a shower because "the water was too cold" so now he has to wait for it to heat up. We're going to be late to the tournament if we don't hurry and get disqualified!" Max looked upset and I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"I'll stay back and wait for him, you guys go on ahead." Ray offered, and I looked at him from the corner of my eye, but refused to give him the gratitude of my full attention.

"You sure dude?" Max asked him with wide eyes, and Ray nodded, smiling.

"It's the least I can do after you all came to find me."

"Let's get going then, we don't have any time to waste." Kai nodded to us, and he, Kenny, Max and I climbed into the van which would take us to the tournament. I looked back to look at Ray who was watching us leave, and he gave me a small smile. I felt my heart clench and looked away, down at my lap and sighed. Why are boys so complicated?

After arriving at the tournament, it felt like we waited forever for the other two to get here. The White Tigers went up against I have no idea how many teams, and completely ripped them all apart. Why the hell aren't Ray and Tyson here already? Ray would be saying something that would calm me down, and even though I'd be pretending to not listen to him; it'd still help me feel better.

"Bad news guys," Brad's voice boomed over the intercoms as the crowds quieted down to a hushed whisper. "It seems as though there's been a landslide on the highway, the causes are still unknown, but irregardless we must carry on with the tournament!"

"A landslide...?" I whispered and looked to the door. I had probably done that at least a hundred times in the past two hours, but they never walked through.

"I really hope they're okay..." Max whispered, looking over in my direction.

"Me too, but we have to carry on without them until they get here." It was our turn to face the White Tigers, and of course Ray wouldn't be here. Maybe he was still having second thoughts about our team... My grandfather walked up behind us and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I know you all will do wonderfully. All we can do is hope for the best and hope that they will get here in time. Max, you're up first against Gary." Max gulped as he saw the giant man stand and walk up to the ring and I gave the blonde boy's hand a reassuring squeeze and a small smile.

"You're gonna do great. I believe in you."

* * *

_Ray_

Traffic was taking forever, and we all know Tyson's probably the least patient of us all.

"Hey, what is TAKING so long?!" He groaned, sighing. I looked over at the boy and then asked the van driver myself in Mandarin.

"There's been a landslide on the highway, I don't think we'll be going anywhere soon." The elder man replied and I nodded standing up.

"Whaaa where're you going?"

"Well, you want to get to the tournament don't you? We're going to walk. There was a landslide and the highway is completely destroyed."

"Ooohh..." Tyson grumbled and stood with me and we exited the van.

"Thank you for everything." I bowed and then we started walking.

"So how long do you think this'll take us?" Tyson asked me. I thought about it for a minute, and then nodded.

"Well if I remember right it's about 6 miles..." I looked over at Tyson who had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Oh man, we're never gonna get there!" We started walking and climbing over hills and rocks... It took us about an hour to make it to the last hill.

"After we climb this, we'll be about 5 minutes away." I told him, smiling and he pumped his fist in the air excitedly!

"Awww yeah! Let's do this! We're coming Kira!" We both started to climb, and I noticed the rocks shift above us, and a large one started to fall right towards me and Tyson just as I was helping him up. I threw him to the side, but the rock got my ankle and I winced feeling pain shoot through it. "Hey dude, you okay?" He asked me with a concerned tone. I shook my head.

"I'm fine, I just hurt my ankle. Let's go." I started to walk, but the pain in my left foot kind of took over and I almost fell, but Tyson caught me.

"C'mon, I'll help you."

* * *

_Kira_

Tick-tock. Tick-tock... I kept staring at the large overhead clock. Max was battling Gary, if he lost another round to him he would lose, and it wasn't looking good for little Maxie, and finally his blade flew past his face and was out. Gary is a rage blader, meaning if he builds up enough anger, then his strength practically doubles and you have no chance of beating him.

"Kira, Ray and Tyson still aren't here, so that means you're going up against Mariah." Kai told me and I opened my eyes, nodding. I stood and walked forward to the bowl and stared Mariah down. I heard Brad and AJ commentating on our stats. All I could hear from the stands was her name repeating, which is understandable since this is her home stadium.

"You hear that? That means you can go home now." Mariah grinned and I turned my attention back to her. "You don't stand a chance, why don't we just save you the embarrassment and you can forfeit. Besides, if you give up now, Ray won't have to see you lose." She nodded toward the door and there he and Tyson were. Cheers erupted over the stands as they walked -well in Ray's case- limped, over to our bench. He came up to me and pulled out his launcher.

"C'mon Kira, I'm here now. I'll blade her."

"Are you crazy? You're obviously injured. I've got this Ray." His eyes stared into mine, and then a smile appeared on his face.

"I finally got you to talk to me." He grabbed me in a hug, and my eyes widened and I pulled away. He limped back over to the bench and I shook my head turning around. Mariah's eyes were flared with anger, and her pupils had changed into little slits like a...cats?

"Alright bladers, get ready! 3,2,1, LET IT RIP!"

"You're not going to get away with stealing my boyfriend. I won't allow it!" Mariah yelled as we ripped our blades and I rolled my eyes, staying quiet. I watched Draiga's movements as she dodged all Galux's failed attempts to attack her. "So your bit beast is a snow leopard, hmmm? No wonder your blade is so fast. Not nearly as fast as mine though." I looked back and forth between Mariah and her blade, taking mental notes of both of their movements. Since this was a three part battle, I could use her anger and inability to control her temper against her; especially since Ray almost completely ignoring her seemed to have set her off. I don't know if he did it on purpose but I most definitely will use it to my advantage. Mariah kept trying to attack my blade, but Draiga was just too fast for her. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.

'Alright Draiga, you know what to do. Just trust me. I've got this taken care of.' I opened my eyes and Draiga's speed started to slow down significantly. Mariah grinned and looked up at me with a determined look in her eyes.

"This is it! Galux take her down!" She screeched and her pink blade flew towards mine and started hitting my blade, sent it flying into a wall and back at me. I caught it with my left hand with ease and my eyes shot up to her.

"And Mariah takes the first win!" DJ Jazz looked sort of surprised and Mariah was doing a happy dance as the White Tigers cheered with her.

"Why don't you go get your blade and we'll really get this battle started." I smirked, twisting my blade back onto my launcher. I reached into my back pocket and slipped two black leather gloves on my hands. I'm through with playing games.

"Huh? You mean she wasn't even trying?" Max asked from behind me, dumbfounded.

"That's how Kira blades. She studies her opponents movements and then takes them out when they least expect it. I assume this battle is just getting started. You may want to warn your old friend that her blade isn't going to be around for much longer, Ray." Kai stated looking at Ray who was watching me with wide eyes.

"You sound really cocky for someone who just lost." Mariah smirked back at me, also twisting her blade on her launcher.

"I guess we'll see then, won't we?" After the countdown, we ripped our blades again and the battle continued once more.

"I'm taking you down Kira! And once Ray realizes how much you guys suck, he'll come back home with us! We already beat one of you, just one more to go." Mariah grinned and I rolled my eyes at her cockiness. Time to put this bitch in her damn place.

"Alright Draiga, go get 'er!" Draiga zoomed after Galux and smashed into her, sending Mariah's blade into a wall of the "Forbidden City", our stadium of choice.

"Galux no!" Mariah shrieked, but I knew her blade wasn't done for yet. I made sure of it. I wanted to show her, and everyone what I could really do. Draiga went after Galux; attacking the mountain cat relentlessly. I may have gone just a little bit overboard, but this girl seriously needed a reality check.

I was going to save this attack for a later date and battle, but if she wanted me to prove that I can beat her ass into oblivion, then that I will.

"If you're ready, Mariah, it's time for you to see what I can really do. Draiga, Heavenly Strike Turbo!" The wind around us started to pick up and my blade started to glow a bright white as it began to spin faster. I looked up from my blade and saw the look on Mariah's face. It was priceless! Finally, Draiga began to go after Galux, who was sadly attempting to escape all of Draiga's attacks and it seemed as though Draiga was playing with her meal before she finally destroyed it, and with one last blow she sent Galux flying into the wall behind Mariah's face right above Kevin's head. The blade shattered just as if it was made of glass and I smirked.

"You were saying, Mariah?"

* * *

**Yaaaay! So there's Chapter 3! I really hope you enjoyed. So tell me, do you want to see Ray/Kira action next chapter, or save it for later chapters? I also may be changing this fic to an M rating a little bit later, but I haven't decided yet! So add this to your alert list for updates and _please review. _Reviews always make my day :) Thanks for reading and have a wonderful fourth of July weekend! If you don't live in the US, disregard that ;)  
**


	4. Trouble in Paradise

**Hello everyone! Thanks for all the reviews, and I'm so glad you're into this story; it really makes me happy! I really wanted to get this chapter up yesterday, but everything is so much harder to do with a four month old. Le sigh. I hope the length makes up for it!  
**

_**Crystal-Wolf-Guardain967: I'm so glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reviewing!**_

_**Trunksgirl1026: Yay, I'm so happy you liked it! Hehe, I haven't revealed her and Kai's past completely yet, but I will soon enough. Yeah, I was mentally cheering deep down when Kira beat her too, though that may have been a little biased ;) **_

_**James Birdsong: I'm glad you enjoyed, I hope this one doesn't disappoint!**_

_**Silverstaar18: haha how funny! I actually had an old beyblade fic with the name Kirana for one of my characters, and I didn't realize it until chapter 3, lol. I guess great authors think alike, neh? I hope you enjoy this chapter too!**_

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 4: Trouble in Paradise  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BeyBlade, yada yada!**

* * *

_Kira_

"And the winners of the Asian tournament are the BladeBreakers!" I swear, I've heard that sentence, not including when it actually happened, at _least_ thirty times now. We were flying back to Tokyo from Beijing on a midnight red eye and Ray, Max and Kenny were all passed out asleep. I'm sure they've gotten used to Tyson's boisterous personality in the time that they've roomed together, but me, not so much. He's been obsessively watching the battle over and over on the BBN's website basically ever since we got on this plane. I slammed my book down on the table in front of me and glared over at Tyson.

"Could you _please_ at least plug in some damn headphones?" Tyson turned to look at me and stuck out his tongue.

"Why don't YOU put in some headphones?" He turned the sound on his TV up, and started the battle all over again. I felt my eye start to twitch, and just as I was about to stand and punch Tyson in the face, Kai stood and ripped the cord out of Tyson's TV, gave him a glare, and pulled his eye mask back down as he sat again. I stifled a giggle and gave Tyson a smug grin to which he grumbled angrily, I smiled and looked over at Max and Ray who were both sleeping across from Tyson and Kenny and the opened my book back up to its previous page. Oh, how I love my teammates.

* * *

_Ray_

After landing back in Tokyo bright and early at six in the morning, Kira went back to her and Mr. Dickenson's house to sleep. Tyson was pissed off at her and Kai for "double teaming" him as he called it, which I didn't really understand, but I didn't care to press for information either. Max went back to his fathers' house and Kenny went back to his own house, Tyson was out visiting with old friends, and Kai went to go out and train some more. I was chilling in Tyson's house when I got bored and decided to explore Tokyo a little more before Kai made us go have a formal practice later on that day. I didn't really expect to be stopped in the streets for autographs and pictures, but I did, a lot. There were even some girls who followed me around giggling, it was kind of creepy. Eventually later when I got back to Tyson's house everyone was there, minus Kira. I figured she was still at her house sleeping since apparently she can't sleep on planes.

"So what's up, are we getting this practice started or what?" Kai looked over at me and shook his head.

"Kira needs us at her house, she wouldn't tell me what, but she needs all of us." She still refused to talk to me, I understand she was upset that I just left the BladeBreakers, and almost rejoined the White Tigers, but I came right back. Maybe she was upset about the whole Mariah thing, but that wouldn't make any sense. It's not like she likes me or anything.

"Well let's get going then." I smiled and we all made our way to Kira's house. Mr. Granger let us use his car since Kira basically lives on the other side of town. Mr. Dickenson's house was ginormous to say the least. It was bigger than any house I'd ever been in before, but that's not really saying much since I come from a very small village. The house was very traditional, yet had some extremely modern qualities to it.

"Oh hello boys! I was wondering when you all would be here." We heard Mr. Dickenson's voice from down the hall when we walked inside. His smiling face appeared and we all greeted him in unison. "Kira and Luna and her friends are in the studio, just go up the stairs and turn the corner, you'll probably hear the music from down the hall." He chuckled looking through some pages in his folder and walked into a room I can only assume was his office.

'Who's Luna?' I questioned to myself, and I'm sure the others were asking themselves the same question.

* * *

_Kira_

"And five, six, seven, eight!" I called out as Luna, my cousin, and I started the dance. Reiyu, Luna's male best friend started the music (Crazy 4 U, Koda Kumi) and started dancing beside her.

"Du du du, du du du, du du du, la da da da.

Du du du, du du du, du du du, la da da da." I heard the door behind us creak open and saw my teammates timidly looking inside and I squealed with happiness.

"Finally you guys are here!" Tyson was peeking inside and threw me a glare and I rolled my eyes. "Come in, I want you to meet my cousin!" I ran over to the door and pulled it open as they all came tumbling down, and I shook my head.

"You know, for a bunch if champions, you all aren't very sturdy." Luna frowned as she bent down and kneeled next to the group of guys.

"Please, Luna, do not boast their egos any more than they already are." I huffed and shook my head in annoyance. She looked over at me and smiled, her lavender eyes shining. Luna is half-Russian and half-Japanese with back length blonde hair that ombres out to a lavender color at the ends that matches her eyes. She has porcelain pale skin that would make a baby jealous and is about two inches shorter than me, practically making her a midget, but not really.

"So you're the mysterious Luna!" Max called out with his jaw dropped and I giggled.

"Yeah, I must have forgotten to mention her earlier, my bad." The boys stood up and I decided this would probably be the best time to introduce them. "Luna, this is Tyson Granger, Max Tate, Ray Kon, Kenny, or Chief as we like to call him, and our evil, cold hearted leader, Kai Hiwatari." I saw Kai give me a glare as I said his name but I just smiled. I saw Luna and Kai give each other a long glance and my right eyebrow raised. Hmmm...

"It's...nice to meet you all." Luna bowed. "Although I feel like I know you all personally after watching you all blade at the tournament. Congratulations." Tyson's jaw dropped.

"You're a beyblade fan too?!" Luna shook her head, and a smile remained on her face.

"I just watch to support my cousin. I'd be crazy not to."

"So why did you call us here?" Kai asked me, and I blushed.

"Uhhh well..before you say no...this for a project for Luna for school." I saw that look in his eyes and gulped.

"Kira..."

"I need you all to help us shoot a music video!" I blurted out, and a look of shock covered their faces.

"Uhhh what?" Ray asked me, but I ignored his question. Did I ever mention that I have a problem with holding grudges? I guess I didn't technically ignore it since I answered the questioning looks of my teammates.

"Luna has a final school project and needs to shoot a video, and we thought we could shoot a music video and that it'd be really cool for the biggest up and coming beyblade stars to be in it. Please please pretty please?" I tried to make my eyes twinkle to the best of my ability, but got dead stares in response.

"You called us over here to cancel practice for _this_?" Kai asked me, I could tell that he was annoyed and I held my pleading face.

"It's really important!"

"Winning the tournament is more important."

"Yeah, well then why haven't you bladed for the team yet, Mr. Bigshot?" I crossed my arms and huffed and everyone was dead silent. I could see the anger in Kai's face and immediately regretted what I said. I, for one, know how strong Kai is. He could possibly be the best blader in the world, and I completely just insulted him.

"If you think you're so great, Kira," he said my name with such venom in his voice it gave me shivers," then why don't we go have a battle right now? However, if you lose, you're off the team." My eyes darted up to his face, and I felt my heart tighten in my chest. I heard a few gasps from around us, and nodded.

"Okay, and if you lose, you all do the music video." I couldn't help myself but grin, and he nodded in reply. I looked over to Luna whose eyes were wide and I motioned her to follow me as we went out to the backyard where we had a basic beybowl. I tightened my ponytail and cracked my fingers as I twisted my blade into its launcher.

"You sure you wanna do this, Kira?" Ray stood by me and whispered as I was preparing myself. I looked up to him and back over at Kai who was also getting his beyblade ready. I nodded.

"I'll be fine. Maybe a little battling will do him some good, he hasn't bladed in a while." I took my stance as did Kai and Max and Tyson began the countdown. I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes.

"3, 2, 1, LET IT RIP." My eyes shot open and my blade flew out into the arena and went straight for Kai's blade. The two made contact instantly and sparks flew from them. They bounced off of each other, and Draiga took several hits from Kai's Dranzer. I had almost forgotten how much strength he had. An amateur thing to do, really.

"Dranzer, attack." Flames were coming off of Kai's blade and I knew he meant business. Beyblading was never a game to Kai, he was always serious about it, which is why he's so damn good. Dranzer was close to hitting my blade, but didn't quite make it. Draiga was just too fast for him.

"Draiga, Heavenly Force!" My blade shone a white light emitting off of it, and went after Kai's.

"Dranzer Spin Fire!" My eyes widened, Kai was counter attacking me?

"No Kai don't!" I called out covering my face, but it was too late. Our two blades collided and there was a huge force that sent me flying and I landed straight into Ray. The rest of the team and Luna also flew back, but not as dramatically as I had since I was so close. I held my head as I stood up and saw that both of the blades had stopped spinning and the whole team gaped at us.

"Holy crap! What _was_ that?" Tyson asked gawking.

'This is why Kai and I were on a team together at camp...we're not allowed to go against each other..' I stared Kai in the face as he did to me, and I stood to go grab my blade. As I held Draiga in my hand, I stared down at it, taking a deep breath. Why? Why am I the one to receive such power? I saw Kai saunter off into the house after retrieving his blade, he was probably going to go mope around town since he didn't beat me. I looked back and saw Luna running after him, which sort of took me by surprise.

* * *

_General POV_

"Hey, wait up!" Luna ran after Kai, she caught up to him just as he was about to exit the gates in front of the Dickenson's house, and he turned to look at her.

"What?" He asked her simply, and her face reddened with a blush.

"Uhhh, I uh... That was really impressive back there." Was all she could manage to muster out under Kai's glare.

"Impressive? We tied." A smile came across Luna's face and she held her hands behind her back.

"Yes, but you should know how strong Kira is, and how hard it is to beat her in beyblading. Didn't you two go to camp together?" Kai stared her down without blinking and Luna sighed. "Look, will you please just be in the music video? I'm not one to usually beg, but I will if it'll get you in the video." She blinked her eyes, hit Kai's face didn't budge. She sighed once again and proceeded to get down on her knees and clasped her hands together. "Oh PLEEEEASE great Mister Hiwatari! It would do me the great honor if you would just pleeeease be in my music video!" Luna exclaimed with her eyes clenched shut, waving her arms around ecstatically. She peeked one eye open and saw a small smile on Kai's face emerging and stood back up. "I promise I won't make you dance or anything, we'll force the other weirdo's to do that. Besides, the video could use a bit of tall dark and handsome." Kai stared her down a few seconds more, and sighed, nodding.

"Fine." Luna cheered and jumped up in excitement.

"Hooray!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back inside the Dickenson Manor.

* * *

_Kira_

"Down up, one two." Two days had passed, and I was hard at work in my dance studio, practicing since I still had school to attend to. I go to a prestigious arts school here in Japan. Sure, it has all the regular courses that a normal school has, but this one focuses mainly on artsy things. Kind of like a magnet school, I've heard it referred to. As you may know, Luna has that video camera practically taped to her hand as long as she can have it...she goes there as well for videography. She has talents in dancing too, but her passion is in the film, and her subject of choice, is of course me.

"Kira, can you come to my office please?" I hear grandfather's voice call over the intercom system which breaks me out of my focus, and I wipe my brow. I look at my phone, and check the time. Four pm already? I've been at this for three hours by now... I pull my hair down from its bun and shut off the music and turn the lights off and walk down the hall to my grandfather's office. I'm really glad we get small breaks in between the tournaments, even though it doesn't really feel like it with Kai's psychotically strict training regimen. I swear, since joining the BladeBreakers we haven't gotten one day of break. I guess that's why we're the best of the best though.

"What is it grandfather?" I ask as I close the door to his office and he smiles up at me.

"I just want you to know how proud I am of you, Kira." I let myself smile a small smile and bow, thanking him silently. "You and the BladeBreakers have done marvelously thus far, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of individuals. You all are so unique in your own way... So I have decided to give you all a gift." My grandfather leaned back in his chair, still staring up at me.

"And what is that?" I ask myself, my mind fleeting to the possibilities.

"I assume you know where the next portion of the tournament is going to be held?" He asks me, and I nod.

"Las Vegas." My grandfather smiles and shakes his head.

"Not anymore, the American Tournament is being moved to Maui." My eyes widened in shock and I practically jump up from excitement and joy.

"You mean Maui...like Hawaii, Maui?!" He grins, nodding.

"And I've decided that you all will go a week early to enjoy yourselves a little before you have to get down to business. Your plane leaves tomorrow night. I know how you all are horrible at catching morning flights so..." I run over to him grabbing him in a huge hug, and he laughs.

"Oh thank you so much grandfather, this is amazing!" I run out of his office and decide it's probably best to go tell the boys the amazing news. Though, I'm sure Kai and Luna will be less than pleased about it since they've been spending about as much time as possible together. I never pictured Kai to be this open with someone, especially someone he just met, but if he's happy I'm happy. And I'm also happy that I'm partially the one to make that happen! Hehe, I guess he owes me.

I run down the stairs, not caring to change out of my dance gear and hop on my bike to ride over to Tyson's house, which isn't too far away.

"GUUUUUYS!" I ran inside his house, and was beaming. I didn't get an answer, so I walked to the living room, and of course they were all surrounding the TV playing Call of Duty. "Heeeeelllooo!" I walked over to the TV and turned it off, crossing my arms. Instantly, there were groans.

"HEEEEY. Oh Kira, when did you get here?" Tyson looked up at me; he was lying on his stomach and sat up. I sighed.

"Just now. Guys I have awesome news!" I beamed, and clasped my hands together.

"What's so important you had to ruin our game?" Ray asked and I glared at him then looked away. Since when was I talking to HIM?

"My grandfather just told meeee..." I lingered on my words bouncing up and down on my heels, hardly able to contain my excitement.

"Told you what?! Kira spit it out!" Max jumped up and was practically shaking me by my shoulders.

"We're going to Hawaii tomorrow!" I yelled out in joy and the boys' jaws dropped.

"What?! Why?"

"Well they changed the location of the tournament! And grandfather wants to treat us a week early since he's so proud of us for the battles in China." I beamed and Max and Tyson cheered dancing around happily. "Oh, where's Kai and Luna?"

"They left to go get something to eat about an hour ago." Kenny spoke up. "Do you mind if I look at your blade? I wanted to do some configurations to it." He looked up at me through his glasses.

"Oh, I left it at home, sorry. How about tomorrow?" I smiled, and he nodded, looking back down at his laptop. "Well I'm going back home to pack! I'll see you guys later!" I waved and started to slide my helmet back on. I heard footsteps coming from behind me and turned to see Ray following after me. "What's up?"

"Hey Kira, can we talk..?" He whispered, a mysterious look that I couldn't recognize in his eye. I gave him a smile. It was probably about everything in China, and I shook my head. I'm just not ready yet...

"Grandfather actually interrupted my practice, so I have to get back home and finish. I'll see you tomorrow though." I pulled the helmet over my head and ran out to my bike. He stared after me and walked back inside with the boys.

* * *

It's not like I've never been to Hawaii before, but this time I was going with some of my best friends, I was beyond excited! I was wearing a black bandeau bikini top with golden tiger stripes, and a black and white striped open front shawl that draped down past my butt, and some dark destroyed short, and some black flip-flops. I left my hair down and flowing, and wore a black fedora hat with a white lacing around the rim. After stepping off the plane into the warm Hawaiian air, we took a golf cart over to the car rental spot and rented two cars. I got a black Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, which Tyson and Max decided to drive with me, and Kai, Kenny and Ray got a red Audi Speedster. We threw our luggage into the cars and decided to drive off onto the main island since the airport wasn't near where we would be staying.

* * *

_Ray_

Kai, Kenny, and I left the airport and car rental place a little while before Kira, Tyson, and Max left. Mr. Dickenson had warned us not to let Kira drive whatever we rented. Apparently she's only really good at driving motorcycles, not so much four wheel vehicles. I didn't really realize what he meant, because she seemed like she'd be a good driver. But… there's the fact that she has a severe speeding problem. I'm pretty sure we left a good twenty minutes before they did and I look up to the side view mirrors, and all I can see is dirt blaring behind us and a black dot that kept growing bigger and bigger. I turned around in my seat to see no one other than Kira, Tyson in the seat next to her and Max all dancing to some song, which I later realized was Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.

"That's not.." Kenny was also turned around in his seat, staring at the approaching vehicle with saucer eyes until Kira pulled up next to us. They had all the windows and sunroom down, and Kira blew a kiss in our direction and took off speeding in front of us. I could hear Tyson cheering, probably from the adrenaline of how fast she was going, (I don't even wanna know how fast that was), but I couldn't help but laugh.

The first day in Hawaii was a blast. We all decided to head to the beach and get some sun in, after of course we practiced and trained. Kira rented a couple of surf boards for us, which her Kai and Tyson were the only ones who knew how so Kenny, and Max, and I went boogie boarding while they surfed. We built some sandcastles on the beach and Kira got thrown into the ocean a couple of times by Max and I which made her mad and she tackled us into the water a few times. I finally saw the tattoo that she had on her hips, which were the two halves of the yin-yang sign with tiger stripes searing through them. That couldn't just be a coincidence.

Finally we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out for the night, Kira wanted to show us this night club she had always wanted to go to, and we were all really excited. She was, of course, in a different room than us once again. We were in a hotel that was different than last time. All the rooms were connected on a single level building that you entered from the outside. Finally after what seemed like forever, she stepped out of her room, and my jaw dropped. Her hair was braided to the side with her bangs swept to the side of her face. She had on black eyeliner and red lipstick which looked amazing on her. Her dress made her eyes pop, it was teal with a one-shoulder flutter sleeve dress (which is just basically a dress with fabric overlaying one sleeve) and at the belt it was changed to a solid white and skin tight and went down to her mid -thigh. She was wearing some white sandal wedges, but she was still a little shorter than me.

"Wow..." I whispered. I shook my head and looked away as we all climbed into the Jeep Wrangler since it had the most seats, Kira wanted to drive, but Kai took the keys from her commenting on her earlier driving and she grumbled, annoyed climbing into the back seat.

When we got to the club, we almost instantly got inside. Somehow the bouncer knew Kira and was a big fan of hers, for what reason none of us knew.

We sat down at a table near the bar, and the waitress was a big fan of the BladeBreakers and obviously had a crush on one of us, but we couldn't figure out which one of us that was.

* * *

_Normal POV_

The waitress dropped off some complimentary drinks at the table and each of them grabbed one. Kira was staring longingly at the dance floor as the boys conversed, checking out the women on the dance floor. Max looked over to his friend and smiled, elbowing her in the side. Kira turned to look at him and shrugged, confused.

"You wanna go dance?" Max asked her, and as the song "The Other Side" by Jason DeRulo came on, she nodded vigorously, and Max took her to the dance floor.

'Man, I should've asked her to dance.' Ray glared, watching them walk away. 'But my ankle...'

'I needa figure out a way to get Ray and Kira together. I'm sure he's jealous since I took her to go dance, but neither of them will make the first move, and it's so blatantly obvious they want each other.' Max thought to himself as he and Kira danced together, and she laughed as he stumbled over himself.

"Aaaalright everyone, only two more players are needed for the karaoke competition. Winner gets a $250 gift card and free drinks on the house tonight!" The DJ called out over the intercom, and Max wiggled his eyebrows at Kira who rolled her eyes.

"I am not joining a karaoke competition!" She shook her head, grinning at her friend.

"Oh come on! You can totally beat anyone easily." He elbowed her in the side again, and she sighed, nodding.

"FINE. But you owe me big time! Let's go sign up!" Kira pulled Max by the hand up to the DJ booth and he resisted.

"Woah, I never said anything about ME joining the competition." He waved his hands in front of his face and Kira crossed her arms, smiling.

"If I have to do this, so do you!" Max sighed, hanging his head, but then after a few thoughts, it perked up and he grinned.

"Fine, but I get to pick your song." Kira stared at him for a few seconds and turned to look at the DJ table writing down their names.

'Why do I have a feeling this is going to end badly...'

* * *

_General POV  
_

"Man, did they go run off back to the hotel or what? They've been gone for like an hour now! It's not fair they don't have to suffer through these horrible karaoke acts with us." Tyson groaned leaning his chin down on his hand that was resting on the table.

"I'm sure they're just having fun Tyson." Kenny tried to reason with him, and Ray was leaning back in his chair, feeling extremely annoyed.

'What? _Did_ they go back to the hotel together or something?'

"Alright, the last act is going to be a combined act, and it's a pretty special one. I'm sure most of you will recognize this little girl, here we have Kira Dickenson and Max Tate from the BladeBreakers!" The DJ announced happily, as the rest of the teammates practically choked on their food/drinks. On stage, there was mist dispersed throughout the atmosphere and the light was focused on center stage. The curtains drew back ,and there was Kira, dressed up in a grass skirt with a coconut bra, her hair undone from it's braid, now flowing down her hair in waves. Max was standing next to her, also in a grass skirt, and a grass band around his arm. They were both whispering to each other and laughing, but their faces straightened up after they realized that the curtain had drawn back. The music started playing, and the back up dancers started dancing with them.

She sang Come and Get It by Selena Gomez, and by the end of the song, she was breathing hard and the crowd was cheering. She bowed, laughing with Max beside her, and she skipped over to the table to sit next to her teammates who just stared at them.

"WHAT was that?" Tyson asked her and Max, and they both looked at each other and laughed.

"Max made me do the karaoke competition!" Kira pointed at Max, who mocked an innocent face. Everyone in the crowd had gone back to their business, when Kira heard clapping coming from behind her, and she turned around, squinted her eyes and gasped. "Oh my God, no way!" She jumped out of her chair and ran, then jumped on a tall, tan guy who was laughing and hugging her back.

"I thought I recognized that voice of yours." He had a semi-deep voice, close to Kai's in tone.

"Kahoru, I forgot you moved here to Hawaii! I'm so happy to see you1" Kira smiled, and then snapped her fingers. "Oh yes, let me introduce you to my friends and teammates." Kira grabbed Kahoru's hand and dragged him over to the table of her teammates who were watching her intently. "Guys, this is Kahoru, my ex boyfriend. Kahoru, this is Tyson, Max, Chief, Kai, and Ray."

'...Ex...boyfriend?' Ray thought to himself as he looked Koharu up and down. He looked like a mixture between Hawaiian and Japanese, with a short low dark brown ponytail and a tribal tattoo around his left arm.

"Nice ta meet you all." He had a Hawaiian accent and Ray didn't like the looks or sound of him. Nope, not one bit.

* * *

_Ray_

I was laying on my bed, tossing my blade up in the air and catching it. Tyson and Max were both watching some American cartoon called Family Guy, which I admit is pretty funny, but my mind was elsewhere. Kira had left the club with her old _boyfriend _Kahoru, to go to a party and visit with some of their old friends. Kai bursted into our room from the deck outside with a worried look on his face, which was rare for him.

"Kira still isn't back, her phone is off and it's almost three AM."

"How do you know she's not just at the party still?" Max sat up on his bed and blinked the sleepiness away from his eyes.

"Because you know as well as I do she wouldn't stay out so late when we have practice in two hours." Kai answered. I mentally shrugged; he had a point.

"Well maybe she's just having fun with her ex boyfriend. She seemed to have a lot of...catching up to do." Tyson wiggled his eyebrows and I glared in his direction.

"Shut up, Tyson."

"What, don't tell me you're jealous Ray!" Tyson laughed and I threw my pillow at him hard which knocked him off his bed. "Raaaay's in love with Kiiiiiiraaaa!"

"I don't have a good feeling about this, Ray." Kai ignored Tyson, and looked in my direction and I turned my head to look at him, nodding. I got up and slipped my shoes and shirt on.

"Let's go get her then. I think she said something about them being at the Konoai Apartments." We climbed into our Audi Speedster and after looking up directions, sped from the hotel to the apartments. I could tell where the party was because of all the drunk people standing around outside. The music was so loud that I could feel the base bumping on my chest, and the air smelled like marijuana, alcohol and other things I didn't want to think about at the moment. "Let's just find her and get out of here." Kai nodded in response, and we pushed ourselves through the crowd of people inside the apartment. It was hot and I could feel the others' sweat running off my body, it honestly felt disgusting and I couldn't believe that Kira was in a place like this. There were women literally trying to throw themselves on Kai and myself, being the drunken state they were in, but we kindly just tossed them off to the side. There were some seemingly sober men playing cards in the back side of the room, I pointed Kai in their direction and he nodded and we walked over to them. Kai pulled up a picture of Kira on his phone and showed it to them.

"Have you seen this girl?" He asked them, and they smirked to themselves.

"Yeah, that slut. She's in the back room with Kaho. They're uh...a little busy though so I wouldn't bother them." _That_ struck a nerve with both me and Kai. Kai punched the guy square in the face, making his nose bleed. I slipped away and took it upon myself to go find Kira so we could get the hell out of this shit infested hole. He said she was in the back room, so that was where I would go to find her. I felt disgusted at the sight that I saw when I opened the door. The room was musky, and Kahoru was standing up next to a bed, bare chested, and pulling back on his board shorts. Kira was laying on the bed beneath him, in only her bra and underwear completely passed out. Her makeup was covering her face, her hair was a wreck, and I'm pretty sure I saw traces of bruises starting to form on her body.

"What the fuck did you do to her Kahoru?" I growled shutting the door behind me. The asshole smirked in reply and crossed his arms, looking satisfied.

"Exactly what you just said. I fucked her senseless until she lost her voice from screaming my name. As you can see she's worn out, the poor girl. Although, I'm done with that bitch. I got what I wanted from her, you can have her." He waved his hand in my direction and before I knew it, I had punched him in the jaw which sent him flying across the room. I know that if Kira had actually been just sleeping she would have woken up by now with all the noise we were making, which meant he did something else to her and that fueled my rage even more.

"I'll give you one more chance to tell me what you did, or your ass is mine." I growled feeling my blood boil.

"Heh, as if it's any of your damn business, anyways." Kahoru clicked his jaw into place and stood up, a dark look in his eye. He attempted to charge at me, but thanks to my many years in martial arts I roundhouse kicked him into the wall which lodged a big crack in it.

"If you even think about coming near her again, I'll do more than break that jaw of yours." Sneering, I walked over and picked up Kira, grabbing her purse and hurried out of the room. I just wanted to get her out of there and back into the safety of our hotel before anything else could happen to her. I saw the group of guys on the ground with a satisfied looking Kai wiping his hands off. "Let's go." I called to him over the music and we both left the apartment. Luckily everyone was so intoxicated they didn't even bother to notice us running out with a half naked Kira.

Once we were about halfway back to the hotel, Kai's phone started ringing and he answered.

"Hey Luna... Yeah we got her, she was with Koharu..." There was a long pause, I could hear Luna's frantic voice on the other side. "Yeah, she's asleep right now. We think that Koharu may have put something in a drink of hers... I know, I'm glad you told me about your intuition too... Okay I'll call you in the morning when she wakes up. Uh huh...bye." So it was Luna who made Kai wonder about her cousins' safety. It made sense since there was no way Kai would worry about something like that on his own.

I looked down at the sleeping girl in my lap. I was sitting in the backseat with her, not wanting to let her go after the earlier events. There were definitely some more bruises setting into her porcelain skin which made me sigh. What would the press think when they saw those? Surely she would be able to hide them with make-up or something, but Kira didn't deserve to suffer in the first place. I felt her stir as my thumb grazed her cheek and her blue eyes blinked open to look at me, her eyes widened and she jumped up in a panicked state, looking around nervously.

"W-wh-where am I?!" I saw her start to grow woozy again, so I held her in my arms again tightly. I felt her tense fade away slowly. "Wh-who are you? What's going on?"

"It's okay Kira, I've got you. Nothing's going to happen to you while I'm here." After a few minutes, I felt her grow limp again, and I sighed. I looked up and saw Kai's red eyes staring hard at us in the rear-view mirror and then his eyes darted back to the road in front of us. There was no way he could know... Could he?

* * *

_Kira_

When I opened my eyes it was bright and sunny out. The dark curtains in my room made it less painful to open my eyes though. I felt an arm around my waist, holding me protectively if anything. I slowly turned over so not to disturb the person and had to stifle a giggle when I saw Ray sleeping with his hair all messed up. He looked adorable! I was smiling, staring at him when I started to wonder...why I was in bed with him in the first place. What had happened last night? I could barely remember...everything was so fuzzy and my head started to hurt from thinking about it. I began to rub my temples as I felt Ray shift beside me. My sudden movements must have woken him up. Good, because I want answers! I sat up on the bed on my knees next to him, and crossed my arms waiting for him to come to. I was relieved to see that I had some sleeping shorts and a tshirt on... Although it is rare that I sleep in a bra... He slowly opened an eye and blinked a few times before looking around and he gave me a sleepy smile when he saw me sitting up, giving him a questioning look. God, he's so cute.

"Well good morning." He greeted me with an adorable sleepy voice, turning onto his back, stretching. Did I mention he's shirtless? He better not have seduced me last night... Though, I won't complain if he did.

"Yeah yeah yeah, good morning." I roll my eyes, which makes him laugh and I look back down at him. "Care to explain to me why you're in MY room, in MY bed, with your arms wrapped around me?!" Ray stretched again, grinning.

"As far as I can see, my arms are not wrapped around you." I huffed.

"And you wonder why I've been ignoring you for the past week..." He laughed again and pulled me againgst his stomach, which made me catch my breath. Where was all this coming from?

"I'm sure you want to know what happened last night...unless you can remember?" I felt his gaze burning in the back of my head, and I shook it, so he continued and told me everything that happened the night before. "You...don't seem surprised..." He whispered and I turned to look at him.

"Kahoru's always been into drugs... So I'm not surprised he would do something like that. He always tried to get me to have sex with him... Yeah I loved him and everything but I never felt comfortable doing that with him. He always had girls on the side to have sex with, but I guess what Kaho wants, Kaho gets. And he'll go to any measure to make sure of it."

"I just can't imagine you with someone so.. disgusting." Ray looked up at me in the eyes, and I shrugged.

"That's why it's all in the past." I saw my phone blinking on the night stand next to me, and reached over. "It's TWO PM!? Why are we still sleeping!? Kai is going to be pissed!" I jumped out of the bed and ran to the bathroom and saw Ray sitting up on the bed.

"You know, he cancelled practice for today. He wanted you to get rest." I stopped in my tracks, almost slamming into the doorframe as I turned to look at Ray, dumbfounded.

"You can't be serious..."

"I know, I could hardly believe it myself, but it seems like he's actually starting to grow a heart in that stone cold chest of his." Ray laughed and I grinned thoughtfully.

"Or maybe a certain purple haired girl is warming up the one he already has." I winked and walked into the bathroom, as I shrieked seeing my face. All my make-up was still smeared all over it. Saying that I look like a hot mess would be an understatement. I reached in my make-up bag and grabbed out a make-up remover wipe, and started wiping at my face. Ray walked into the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe, watching me. "You know, you could have at least told me I look like a fool." I sighed.

"I thought it'd be funnier if you found out this way." He laughed again and I glared at him through the mirror. "You know," He took a deep breath and walked over to me, grabbing my hand. "I told Mariah I just wanted to be friends with her." I caught my breath and slowly looked up at him.

"W-what...? Why would you do that?" My eyes were wide and he smiled, tracing the side of my face with his finger, which gave me the shivers.

"You've had a long day and night, I'm gonna let you go take a shower. I'll see you a little later, Kira." Ray started to head towards the door to outside and I watched him walk away.

"Wait! Answer my question!" I called out to him, and he just laughed again.

"I'll let you figure that out for yourself." I furred my eyebrows in frustration, and sighed. What on Earth am I going to do with him?

* * *

I felt like going on a run to clear my head. Everything that had happened with Kaho just sent my head into a spiral whirlwind of emotions. When Kaho and I broke up, it had been because he was moving to Hawaii. His family had always been close friends with mine. He had introduced me to beyblading, and was partially the reason I'm so good at it. I had heard of him date raping girls before, but I never thought that he would actually do it to me... Since when was he so desperate? I had been running for about thirty minutes when I made it deep into the forest behind our hotel/resort, and to a clearing with a crystal clear lake, a rope swing, and no one else around. An idea popped into my head and I smiled, turned on my heel and ran back to the hotel.

"Raaaaay!" I burst into the boys' room, and looked around. Only Max and Tyson were in there and they were jumping on the beds together, and I shook my head at them, sighing. They have way too much energy to be human. I closed the door behind me and pursed my lips in thought. Maybe he's at the beach? So I ran down towards the beach and saw him standing on a surfboard, trying to master it. Ray's the type of guy where he has to do something until he's perfect at it, or it'll drive him nuts. Kind of like a perfectionist. Yeah! That's what he is, a perfectionist. "Heey Ray!" I took off my shoes and ran down into the water, and waved my arms around to get his attention. I caught his attention just at the wrong moment and just as the wave was about to set, he lost his balance and fell into the ocean. "Oh jeez..." I sighed and swam out to him.

"Gee, thanks for making me lose my concentration." He laughed as we finally met and splashed me with water.

"Hey, come out to shore with me, there's something I wanna show you!" I started to swim back to shore, and he silently followed after me. I'm sure he was curious as to what it could be. I led him out to the place that I'm now dubbing as my secret place, and his eyes widened.

"Woah Kira, how'd you find this?" He asked me amazed, looking around. I smiled walking over to the lake and stood next to it, admiring the beauty.

"I went on a run and kind of just found it by accident." I shrugged, and he walked over next to me.

"So why'd you wanna show me this?" He asked me, and I got a mischievous look on my face as I pushed him into the lake laughing.

"That's why!" But he grabbed my hand and pulled me in with him, which I definitely was _not_ expecting. The temperature of the water hit me hard and I lost my breath as he pulled me in. I swam to the top, taking a deep breath and growled. "Dangit, you totally messed up my plan of revenge!" I huffed, spinning around looking for him but I couldn't spot him. Suddenly, I felt him grab me from behind, and he spun me around in the water and pulled me against his bare naked chest. I recognized that look in his eyes.

"Then let me make it up to you..." He whispered huskily, and as I was about to reply, he enveloped his lips in my own and I felt that shock of electricity run through me once again. I heard myself let out a soft moan, and my right hand reached up into Ray's hair, and my left arm went around his neck. He pulled away too quickly for my liking and traced my lips with his finger, looking into my eyes. "Does this make up for everything that's happened?" He asked, and I knew he was talking about China. I smiled and kissed him once more.

"Only if you shut up and keep kissing me." I felt him smirk into my lips, and much to my pleasure, he didn't stop.

* * *

**There's chapter 4! I hope you all enjoyed it! How did you guys like Kahoru? And Luna? I wanted to make this beyblade more of a filler chapter with some Ray/Kira action! Thanks for reading and _please review_. Have a great weekend everyone! ****  
**


	5. The Fourth

**Okay, so a little side note before I begin. I freaking BROKE my left foot. Ugh it's making life so freaking complicated right now lol, but what can ya do, that's life.**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 5: The Fourth  
**

**(Ages: Kira: 17 Luna: 17 Tyson: 18 Max: 18 Ray: 19 Kai: 19 Kenny: 17)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any BeyBlade things, I just own my OC's :) **

* * *

_Ray_

I watched Kira's back lift up and down gently in a routine motion as she was sleeping on her stomach. The sliding glass door to her hotel room was wide open, and the cool breeze from the ocean was blowing in, keeping it cool. Kai and I had spoken after we came back from the lake, and we both decided it would be best if someone was with Kira at all times while we were in Hawaii. We didn't know what else this Kahoru would be capable of, and didn't want to take the chances. I had convinced him to let me stay with her, even though he was strongly against it. He probably only agreed because Kira and I hadn't told him about what happened earlier, but I wasn't going to complain about sharing a room with her, and I knew I was only the one Kai would trust with keeping her safe besides himself. She looked so peaceful lying there and I couldn't help but smile. I sat up and sighed, just as I was about to reach for the remote to turn on the TV, Kira's phone started buzzing. It was 11 o'clock at night, who could be calling? Of course, it was Luna.

"Hey Luna, what's up?"

"You don't sound like Kira! Who is this? Is that you Kahoru? Ohhh you better be glad I'm not there because-"

"Relax Luna, it's me, Ray. Kira's sleeping." I laughed softly at Luna's fiery spirit; she was so protective of Kira, even though she was younger.

"Oh, thank GOD. I was about to fly out there and kick some major ass! Wait- it's like the middle of the night there, why are you in Kira's room?" I guess Kai didn't tell her that part of our little plan.

"Uhhh well, we decided it's probably best if someone's with her at all times while we're here in Hawaii, just in case."

"Oh so she's letting you stay with her willingly? I'm surprised, she's usually so prude about those things. " Luna scoffed. "Though at least now I know who to blame if she gets hurt again! Believe me Ray, you touch her or let anything happen to her, I'll kill you!" Luna hung up the phone and I sighed, placing it back on the coffee table. I looked back over at Kira and shifted back into the cool black silk sheets. She sighed in her sleep and rolled over, pushing the blanket off of her and her toned stomach. She was sleeping in a sports bra and some yoga pants. I saw traces of her yin-yang tattoo etched into her hips again and questions ran through my mind. She didn't seem effected at all by the whole Kahoru date rape thing, why was she blowing it off all nonchalantly? I sighed and turned over onto my side staring into the window, which led directly to the ocean. No sense in worrying about these things until I can get the answers from her, and I don't plan to push until she's ready. I closed my eyes and with the calming sound of the waves, sleep easily took over me.

* * *

_Normal POV_

_"Why are you sending her to a beyblade camp, Hideki? Beyblade is for boys, and she is a young girl. I already told you I don't want her participating in that sport. She is a fine dancer." A younger Kira with black hair and wide blue eyes walked down the hall, hearing an argument coming from the kitchen stared through the crack in the doorway as she saw her parents arguing, her mother throwing a pamphlet down on the table. She was a tiny beautiful woman with short brown hair and eyes that matched Kira's._

_"I know this, Sacha. I am sending her so that she will see she has no chance in succeeding in this sport. She has almost no experience, there's no way she'll do well." Her father had short black hair, wrinkles running thoroughly through his face and cold black eyes. Kira felt tears coming to her eyes as she quietly backed through the hallway of their home, clenching onto her pink and black starter blade she held firmly in her hand. She had been happily practicing all afternoon after finding out that her father was planning on sending her to a beyblade camp._

_"I'll prove them wrong," she whispered as she wiped the crystal tears that dared to fall from her eyes. "then they'll have to support me."_

* * *

Kira's eyes slowly blinked open as everything went from blurry to clear. The sound of the waves helped her remember where she was, and she turned on her side to see a shirtless sleeping Ray turned towards her, a relaxed look on his face. She smiled and sat up, stretching her body and rubbing her eyes to rid them of any remaining sleepiness. Her alarm was going off like crazy, but somehow Ray was still asleep. Kira smiled to herself, and she reached over Ray to her phone. Just as she reached it, she felt a pair of hands pull her down back towards the bed. Well, rather back towards Ray.

"H-hey! I thought you were still sleeping." Kira whispered, her heart beating fast in her chest from the shock, and being as close as she was to Ray. 'I don't think I'll ever get used to this.' She looked into his bright golden eyes as he grinned, a sleepy smile on his face, which she had to admit to herself was pretty sexy.

"It's always nice to wake up to something so beautiful in the morning."

"Always? This is your second time, mister. Unless you've been sneaking in my room and waking up next to me before I get up." Kira narrowed her eyes and Ray laughed.

"So what if I did, you wouldn't complain." Kira's face reddened and she sighed, sitting back up. The alarm on her phone started to go off again and she snatched it from the night table and disabled the alarm.

"Well, let's go get this practice over with!" Kira jumped out of bed and stretched, revealing the tattoos on her hips once again to Ray, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her over to him.

"Can I ask you something?" He stared down at her hips, and she nodded.

"Sure, what's up?" She looked down at him as he looked up at her.

"What made you get those as your tattoo?" He traced the marks on her hips which made a shiver run down her back, and she grabbed the hand that was tracing her tattoo.

"Well, I know the piece together represents balance, which is something I like to live by. But they also have different meanings when they're separate, as I'm sure you know." Kira smiled looking up to the yin-yang sign on his headband. " They represent my different personalities, Yin while I'm blading, and Yang while I live my every day normal life." Kira pulled herself from Ray. "You really should get going though, they're going to wonder what's taking us so long." He nodded.

"I'll see you out there." Kira smiled watching him walk away, sighing happily. 'I dunno how I got so lucky, but there's no way in hell I'd ever complain about it.' She turned toward her duffel bag on the floor next to her bed and began to pick out some clothes to train in.

* * *

After two hours of practice, they all decided to explore the islands of Hawaii a little bit more. For the meantime they were on the island of Maui, but that could easily be changed by a boat or a jet plane.

"Woooow, this place is total paradise!" Tyson exclaimed happily as he dashed out in front of the others. "Look at all the hot girls in bikinis!" His eyes were shining with happiness and Kira giggled.

"Of course that's the one thing you notice."

"Hey! Is that Kira Dickenson?" The group heard a few soft female voices exclaim from behind them.

"I think it is! What's she doing here in Hawaii?" Kira turned around and saw a group of girls hushed, well not really so hushed, whispers standing in a circle, practically staring her down. If they were trying to be secretive, they weren't doing a very good job.

"Ummm can I help you ladies?" Kira asked taking a step towards them, and they all gasped.

"You _are_ Kira Dickenson! We're your biggest fans! Can we get a picture with you?" A short tan Hawaiian girl with long brown hair asked her, and Kira nodded, smiling.

"Of course! I'd be nothing less than honored." She walked over and stood in the group of five girls who all squealed with happiness as they took a few pictures and then gave Kira a few hugs and then they were back on their way.

"It's strange they didn't recognize the rest of us, but only you Kira." Max tapped his chin, and looked back at the girl whose blue eyes were shining.

"You shouldn't question it Maxie, just accept it." Kira smiled.

"They didn't look like beyblade fans." Tyson narrowed his eyes, and Kira laughed.

"And you should know by now not to make assumptions, Tyson! I thought you'd learned that lesson already!"

"Yeah yeah.." He grumbled, crossing his arms, looking around. "Why does everyone have the American flag all over their clothes today?" Tyson looked over to Max.

"It's the Fourth of July." Max smiled, pointing to some kids running around with some sparklers.

"AKA, the American Independence Day, Tyson." Kenny told his friend, seeing the confused look on his face.

"I knew that." Tyson lifted his nose.

"Oh! That means there'll probably be some fireworks shows later tonight! Can we go to watch them? Please Kai?" Kira ran up to Kai, and pleaded with him, and he nodded.

"I suppose. We just can't stay out too late."

"Yeah yeah because of practice later tonight, I know. Yay I'm so excited!" Kira smiled, running ahead of the group and did a cartwheel.

"Hey, look it's the BladeBreakers!" A guy ran up to them and then a big group of people surrounded the gang, and they spent a good amount of time signing autographs and taking pictures with their new adoring fans.

* * *

"What an exhausting day." Max yawned falling back on his bed. While not being hounded by groups of people, they all went ATVing on the beach, shopping in the city, snorkeling, and the group decided to try surfing again, Kira had successfully taught Ray, but Kenny and Max, not so much.

"Well, take a nap now and get ready for tonight because we're going to party on the beach." Kira smiled and headed back towards the door. "I'm going to go change, I'll be right back."

"She has so much energy, I don't get it." Tyson groaned, also flopping down on his bed. "My legs feel like jello."

"She has always been like this. She enjoys being around other people." Kai was sitting in a chair near the television with his arms crossed and the others turned to look at him.

"You both went to camp together right?" Ray asked him and Kai nodded.

"Yes, we went to the same blading camp in Russia since I was six years old, she stopped going when she was ten because of her parents."

"So that's how you both know each other's blading so well." Tyson whispered, and Kai closed his eyes in thought.

"We were always on the same team. Once the instructors at the camp saw our blading techniques, they decided our powers would be best together."

"But you both blade so different, your style's aren't anything like each other." Tyson frowned, probably not understanding the logic behind it all.

"That's true, but opposites sometimes always make the best teammates." Kira's voice came from the door, and she was leaning against it, listening to their conversation. Ray's jaw dropped when he laid his eyes on her, and she blushed, seeing his stare. Kira's two toned hair was down and wavy from it being windswept and she had on a straw colored cowboy hat. She had put on a little bit of make-up, but not too much that it over shadowed her natural beauty. She was wearing a bikini that just screamed America. It was a bandeau twist top, that on one chest it had a dark navy color with white stars, and the other was striped, red and white. She had on short dark distressed denim shorts with the button undone, and her bikini bottoms showed through, which was also a dark navy with stars. "Do you think this is Fourth of July festive enough?" She asked Max and he nodded, laughing.

"I don't think you could look any more American unless you tied a necklace of bacon around your neck." (I don't think anyone will get that joke unless you live here…lol)

"When did you manage to find time to buy that?" Kai asked her, raising his eyebrow.

"…Kai, I'm a girl. Don't question it, just accept it." He rolled his eyes and looked over to the others.

"So then, what exactly is our plan for tonight?"

"Well, when we were down in the rural area's I heard a bunch of people talking about some kind of fireworks show going on on Kaanapali Beach around seven o'clock tonight." Ray offered up, and Kira nodded.

"Alright then, Maxie, Tyson, if you both want to take a nap, you can probably get a two good hours in before we head out." Kira stretched and stood off the doorway. "I think I'm gonna go take a nap myself. Oh Kai, Luna wanted you to call her. She said she needed to talk to you about something." Kira smiled and headed back into her room, and Kai looked over to Ray, who shrugged.

"Don't ask me, dude." Kai sighed and reached in his pocket for his phone and headed onto the deck, away from everyone else so he could have some privacy. He scrolled through his contacts, and selected Luna, then he heard the phone ring a couple times and a sleepy sounding Luna answer the phone, which brought a small smile to his face.

"Moooooshi…?" Luna whispered.

"Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?" He asked, leaning against the wooden railing. All he heard was silence and then a soft thud, and Luna's cursing in the background.

"Sorry, I dropped my phone. No you didn't interrupt my beauty sleep, because I'm beautiful enough as is and I don't want to blind anyone with my ravishing beauty." Luna scoffed and Kai chuckled.

"Whatever you say… Kira said you wanted me to call you?"

"Oh YEAH. Where in Hell did you get the idea to let her and _Ray _sleep in the same room together?" Luna yelled at him through the phone and he winced pulling the phone away from his ear. "Hold on, I'm going to FaceTime you. I wanna see your face when you answer this!" A few seconds later, his FaceTime ringtone was going off and he hit 'accept.' "You were saying?" Luna was sitting in her bed, her hair tied up in a high ponytail on her head, the length of it curly sitting on the side of her face. He felt a small pang in his chest once he saw her and sighed, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was starting to miss her.

"You just woke up? You do realize it's about 11 AM there right?"

"Stop trying to change the subject and answer the question!"

"Alright alright, it's not like it really matters. I probably placed the most mannered one of us to room with her. Besides, we haven't told the others about what happened. There's no telling what Tyson would do and we don't want him to get kicked out of Hawaii before the tournament." Luna rolled her eyes and glared into the camera.

"You do realize that they're both in love with each other right?! You're basically sending them into a relationship together."

"Ray and Kira both know better than to get into an interpersonal relationship beyond teammates while there's a tournament going on. Besides, no they're not."

"Oh yeah, I forget. You're a guy. You're oblivious to things like that. If I were you Kai, I'd keep my eyes on them. I don't know much about beyblading, but I do know that they don't allow things like that to go on at work and stuff for a reason."

"Lunaaa! It's time for lunch!" A voice called from outside Luna's door and she looked toward it, and gave Kai a sad smile.

"Look, I've got to go. I'll call you later, don't have too much fun without me." She smiled and he nodded.

"Yeah, I'll try. Bye Luna." He exited the video chat and looked towards Kira's room and then back out at the ocean. 'They wouldn't do something like that, would they…? They know better than to stray from anything besides teammates…'

* * *

A few hours later, the gang headed out to Kaanapali Beach which was about a thirty minute drive from their hotel, and once again, they took their two separate cars.

"Wooow, why haven't we been coming here?" Max asked in amazement as he removed his sandals and ran into the soft white sand which molded into his feet.

"No joke.. this beach is beautiful." Kira whispered as she laid her towel down on the sand next to Tyson's. The sun was just starting to set over the horizon which portrayed a magnificent view for the bladers. They all stared over the water, admiring the beauty of the changing colors.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get some drinks for everyone. Kira, you wanna come help me?" Ray said as he laid out his towel and Kira looked up at him, seeing a certain look in his eye and she shrugged, trying to play it off.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Max and Tyson were too busy running off to play in the water to even care, Kenny was busy typing on his laptop, Kai was the only one who seemed to notice.

"I'm good, thanks..." He said as he eyed them walking away. 'Maybe Luna's theory isn't so crazy...'

Ray and Kira had walked a good five minutes from the others, when he pulled her deep into a foresty area and pinned her against a palm tree, a hungry look in his eyes.

"Why, Mr. Kon, what ever has overcome you?" Kira asked him innocently, a smirk on her face as he leaned toward her and took her lips against his. She felt her breath being whisked away, and that familiar electricity hit her hard.

"Don't even start. I know you dressed like that just to mess with me." He murmured against her lips and she giggled.

"I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." From the distance, they heard people cheering and looked back over to the beach. He looked down and leaned his forehead on hers and closed his eyes. "Thank you, Ray." Ray opened his eyes, surprised at her statement and looked down at her, she was looking down at the ground, and he used his left hand to lift her chin so she would look at him. When her beautiful sapphire eyes met his, she sighed.

"For what?" He asked, his forehead creasing in confusion.

"Not leaving us to go back to the White Tigers. I don't know where I would be right now if you had left us... or where we would be..." He smiled at her confession, and placed a small peck on her forehead.

"You're the whole reason I came back, remember? You're the one who led the search party to find me. I would have been an idiot if I didn't come back." Kira nodded in thought and smiled.

"True.. that would have been pretty idiotic of you..." She smiled and looked back up into Ray's eyes. "He didn't do it...you know."

"Who didn't do...what?" Ray felt his body growing nervous in apprehension.

"Kahoru... he didn't rape me." Kira saw the confused look on his face and continued. "I would have been sore if he had. I just thought I'd tell you, because I saw that it was troubling you all day..and I don't want you to worry. Kahoru may be a twisted fuck, but he would never actually hurt me. I'm still a hundred percent virgin."

"Y-you're a virgin?" Ray asked her with wide eyes, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I've always wanted the one I love to be the one that I experience all that with, and I never loved Kahoru in that way."

"Me too..." Ray whispered, and then his eyes widened when he realized what he said. 'Oh shit...why did I say that?' Kira blinked, a surprised look on her face.

"You are? I always thought that you and... n-nevermind. I guess that's always good to know." She smiled and stood on her tippytoes, leaning against Ray's bare chest. "You know, I'm gonna miss you always walking around shirtless when we head back to Japan." She pressed her lips against Ray's and all his worries melted away as they kissed.

'She always has this effect on me...' He thought as he closed his eyes, and sighed happily.

"Oh..." Kira pulled back from the kiss as a load of colorful fireworks began to pop above them in the clear, starry, midnight black sky. "If this isn't perfect... I dunno what is."

"It's only perfect because you're here with me.." Ray whispered as Kira's heart jumped in her chest, and her and Ray began kissing once again in a picture perfect scene.

* * *

The next morning, the team woke up bright and early for training once again, and Kira woke up the boys by sneaking into their room and blowing a big foghorn. They all practically jumped out of their beds and she ran off, laughing. Thus beginning the next portion of their prank wars.

They were eating breakfast in the boys' room, watching the BNN when a blonde woman stepped off of a private jet, labeled 'All Starz' followed by five teenagers. Max dropped his fork onto his plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, along with his jaw seeing the woman on the screen.

"Hey Max, buddy you okay?" Tyson asked, waving his hand in front of his friends face.

"T-that's my mom..." He whispered and they all looked back and forth between the woman on the tv and Max.

"I mean, I can see the resemblance." Kira shrugged. "So what's the big deal?"

"I thought she was here in the states on business, not coaching our opposing team!" Max frowned and Kira placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I'm sure you'll get to see her before we go up against them and you can ask her about this."

"Also breaking news: an up and coming team from the home state of the tournament, Hawaii, the Lua Pele Lono's, led by the famous local blader Kahoru Takemaru." Kira's smiling face slowly dropped to a frown as her head turned to stare at the TV screen, and she saw Kahoru's face smirking on the screen, almost as if he was taunting her.

'I'm coming for you, Kahoru... and this time, you better watch _your _back.'

* * *

**Alright, there was chapter 5. I know it wasn't as long as they usually are, so I'll put the blame of that on my foot. Question time, do you all prefer it written in first person or third person? I was also thinking of maybe changing the rating of this fic around the time that they go to Europe. Would you all want me to keep this rated T or change it to rated M? Also, if you have any ideas for pranks they can pull on each other, please give me some ideas. And some scenes you may want to see between Kira/Ray or Kai/Luna, let me know because I will gladly put them in. Oh, and do you think any of them are OOC? I know Kai isn't as grumpy as usual, but he was never in love in the show, so how he would act is open to interpretation I suppose... any comments questions or concerns, please drop me a review. I love reviews, they always make my day, and I appreciate every single one of them! Have an awesome weekend, y'all! **


	6. L'histoire

**Hellloo everyone! Just a few words before I start; first off, I would like to thank the two of you who continuously review every chapter! It makes me so happy, and y'all make my day! Second, Ray is NOT a virgin! I am so sorry to those of you I have confused. He said he wasn't kind out of a mistake, and he was internally bashing himself for it, but this lie _will _be important later in the story, I promise you that! Another thing, I am so sorry this chapter is so short. No, Luna is not in this chapter, but there is plenty of Kai for you Kai lovers out there! Speaking of Kai, I wanted to give a shout out. 'Remember Me' by Silverstaar18, she has an amazing talent, and if you need a little more Kai in your life, go read that. But read this one first ;) Hehe enjoy! Oh, and _don't forget to review._**

**Disclaimer: no no no I don't own BeyBlade!**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 6: L'histoire **

* * *

_Kira_

After seeing that we would be going up against Kahoru and his team, all I wanted to do was practice and get ready for the American Tournament. I'm pretty sure that Kai was even impressed with my sudden commitment to practice, and I had hardly slept a wink. Kahoru was the whole reason I started beyblading, and if he's as nearly good as I remember him being...I'm more than a little nervous for this upcoming battle. I mean, I've gotten better since I first started blading of course, but regardless, Kahoru definitely knows what he's doing.

"I've hardly seen you all day, come on Kira, dinner's ready. Max ordered pizza, and we can only hold Tyson off from eating it all for so long." I heard Ray's soothing voice call me from behind, and I turned my head to see him standing behind me. My heartbeat quickened when I laid my eyes upon him, his shirt was unbuttoned, as he dawned one of those Hawaiian shirts with the flowers, and his pant legs rolled up to a little below the knee since we were on the beach. I sighed looking back down at the blade in my hand, tightening my hand around it. "You're not still worried about the tournament are you?" I could feel him coming closer to me, and finally his warm hands firmly held my shoulders which were bare and beginning to tan from all the sun I was getting. I shrugged lightly in response to his question, breathing in the salt water air and turned to look at Ray again who had worry written across his face.

"Let's get going, I'm pretty hungry after today." I grabbed his hand and he followed me inside the bungalow where the aroma of cheese, pepperoni, and baked bread filled the room, and my mouth watered. I watched them all laughing and conversing as we ate, about the events of the past few days, but I just munched on my pizza quietly, eating piece after piece.

"Kira, can I talk to you outside please?" I blinked as Kai's cold, firm voice brought me out of my trance. Of course he would be the one to notice that I'm distracted. I felt everyone's eyes on us and sighed, standing up from the bed I was sitting on and followed Kai outside. He closed the door behind us and crossed his arms, leaning back against the railing, his magenta eyes focused on me.

"What do you want?" I crossed my arms, letting my eyes meet his. I saw the look on his face, and I could tell he wasn't happy, not only that but his whole body was radiating annoyance.

"What has been going on with you? You've barely spoken a word since that night." I had no words to answer him. Why would he even ask me such a question when he already knew the answer? "Don't tell me that you're nervous of the battles coming up, Kira."

"So maybe I am... What does it matter?"

"What does it matter? These are the _world championships_, Kira. They're not just some qualifying rounds, or some mediocre camp battles. This is the real deal, and whether you like it or not, those guys in there are depending on you to support them." He spat at me, and I could see the frustration forming on his face. This wasn't the first time he had given me a lecture of battles, though I felt like I was five again and being scolded.

"I never _asked_ to be a part of this team, Kai. You know who told me to join? My grandfather-" I began to turn to walk away, I was in the furthest thing from a mood to argue.

"And you know who told him to ask you?" His words stopped me in my steps, and my aqua colored eyes froze as they stared out at the sea. "I did." I never in my wildest dreams expected Kai to be so honest. Why me of all people? "Your parents never believed in you Kira, but I did, and I still do. Don't let Kahoru's preemptive actions get the best of you. Believe in yourself and you will be great. We can't have one of our best teammates down, don't make me bench you for the rest of the leg of this tournament, because you know I will." I turned slowly to look at Kai, who had no real emotion on his face, but even coming from him, I'm pretty sure that was almost a compliment... "_Get your shit together,_ Kira." One last word, and he went back into the boys' room and I sighed. I decided I didn't want to be surrounded by the buffoons I call my teammates, so I went into my room and took a long hot bubble bath, washing away all my stress from earlier that day. After I decided I was pruny enough, I got out and got ready for bed in some yoga shorts and a BladeBreakers tanktop. Apparently, we already have team apparel for sale, which if I do say so myself is pretty cool. I brushed my hair out and braided it, then went into my room and laid in my bed. My room felt so alone, cold, and empty. Ray still wasn't in here and I had foolishly gotten used to him being with me at night. I gave up on staring at the door to make him magically appear and rolled over, sighing.

As I finally felt my eyes drooping and sleep finally coming to me a few hours later, I heard the sliding door open, and Ray's soft, soothing voice woke me up instantly.

"Kira...? Are you awake?" He asked me quietly. If I hadn't been awake, he probably wouldn't have even woken me. I slowly turned over and gave him a smile, sitting up.

"I'm up, I...wasn't able to sleep." I sighed, and he nodded.

"I tried to sleep over there. I thought you might want your space, but I couldn't sleep either.." He walked over to the bed, and laid down next to me, pulling my back against his chest, his arms looped around my waist. I felt myself relax against his chest and my head leaned back against him. "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm becoming so comfortable with you." I smiled and laughed softly looking up at him.

"I'd say good, _but_, once we're back in Japan, you'll be sleeping in your own bed again." He was staring off into space, a melancholy look on his face. "What's the matter?"

"May I ask you a question?" I blinked, staring at him, but I nodded.

"Of course, ask away."

"You and Kai seem so familiar with each other. I know you both went to camp together, but you two seem connected on a different level, that even I can't seem to reach. How...?" Ray's golden eyes connected with mine, and I stared at him, confused. Was Ray...jealous or insecure of my relationship with Kai? Of course we were never anything more than friends...but..

I turned back around to lean against Ray once more, and took his hands in mine, intertwining our fingers . His palms were calloused from all of our practices, as were mine and I sighed. I suppose it was about time I told him about Kai's and my past. I looked out the sliding door to the moon and the stars in the clear midnight sky that reflected off the waves in the ocean.

"I first met him when I was five, a week into my first year at camp which was run by this man named Boris. I had learned about blading from Kahoru, and he had tried to teach me..but as you can probably guess he wasn't a very good teacher. He was impatient and not very kind. My parents sent me to a camp in Russia to basically crush my dreams of blading because they wanted me to be a dancer. Well, sending me to the camp pretty much had the opposite effect. That's where I got Draiga, and my love of beyblade intensified..."

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

"Why's there a _girl_ here at camp?"

"Yeah, she's not even that good!"

Voices echoed over the practice hall. They were all watching Kira practice. She wasn't battling anyone; just letting her blade spin in the bowl.

"What are you all doing?" A kid with two toned gray hair walked into the cabin and they all gasped.

"It's Kai..."

"I thought he was supposed to be out training since he IS the favorite." Kai's maroon eyes landed upon Kira who was still staring down at the beybowl, not even noticing that he had entered the room. He saw tears forming at her eyes and walked over to where she was standing.

"What are you doing?" Even for a little boy he had a deeper voice. He was only six years old and towered over the raven haired girl.

"What does it look like I'm doing, idiot? I'm blading." She peered her eyes up to look at him and saw him glowering down at her. She noticed the blue triangle tattoos on his cheeks and couldn't help but stare, his gaze was about as intense with hers, but neither let up.

A voice called from the entrance to the cabin and distracted them from their gaze.

"Okay everyone! Time to train, let's head outside." A sweet voice called from the door and a woman with stark black hair, a pale complexion and dark colored eyes. She smiled seeing everyone file from the practice hall through the doors to the wooded area outside. Kai gave Kira one last glance and a sneer as he turned and followed the others outside, and Kira stared after him. She bent down and reached for her beyblade, grasping it in her hand. "What a weirdo..." She whispered and stood, feeling a pair of eyes watching her from behind. They were dark and black, just like the woman's but held no kindness in them like hers had, and he also had long two toned hair like that Kai she had just met. He was giving her a glowering stare with a dark smirk on his face. Kira gulped and backed up before running out of the practice hall out to where everyone had started training.

* * *

"So Kai's always been kind of a downer..." Ray whispered, feeling amazed and Kira felt herself give a small giggle.

"Oh you have no idea. Any time I would ever try and joke around with him, he would be all serious and.. I don't know..." The girl sighed and played with Ray's fingers. "Then we were all partnered up, and the man, Voltaire insisted that Kai and I work together. I've never understood why until I got Draiga, that's when I really got powerful. It was a year later, I had mastered the skill of evading and slamming blades into nothing, even without all the flashy attacks." Ray was listening to Kira tell her story intently. He had never pried her for this information before. He hasn't wanted to invade her personal space, but he had always been curious of Kai and her secret relationship they had hidden from everyone pretty well, and with every story she told he realized it was nothing more than how an elder brother would protect his little sister, which is pretty much what they had become over the years, and his whole over protective barrier he held in front of Kira now made sense to Ray.

"Well, at least now I understand why he is so willing to trust you with almost anything."

"Almost, being the key word. There's still a part of him that even I cannot break down. It's who he is though, and we're better off not trying to pry into him. Maybe Luna can do that, after all, he goes all gushy for her." Kira smiled softly, and felt herself becoming increasingly sleepy. "Let's talk more in the morning, I'm so tired..." And barely being able to finish that sentence, she fell into a deep slumber. Ray smiled, pulling her close to him and shifted down so they'd both be comfortable.

'In the morning, Kira.'

* * *

**Kay, I don't know if this chapter is any good, but I wanted to make the American Championships their own chapter, and give you all a little insight on how Kai and Kira met and their whole relationship shebang. And Luna may or may not make an appearance next chapter :D hahah you'll just have to wait and find out, and _review _of course. Thanks for reading!**


	7. American Championships Part I

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 7: American Championships, Part 1  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own BeyBlade, yada yada yada.**

* * *

**BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.** Ray groaned lifting his hand to silence the alarm next to him, which hadn't remembered setting last night. He moved his right hand, feeling for Kira, but all he felt were the cool silk sheets. He sat up, yawning and rubbing his golden eyes sleepily looking around. He heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom and a voice singing a song that was foreign to his ears. Why the hell was she up at 3:30 AM? He stood up walking over to the bathroom, feeling groggy as hell and opened the door hearing Kira singing.

'_If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?' _

"Kira?"

"Oh, Ray! I'm almost done! Just gimme a minute." She peeked out from the curtain and grinned. He could see the suds in her hair from the shampoo and shook his head walking back into the other room. He switched the light on and sat down on the bed, sighing. It was a late night of gruesome practice last night, and he had planned to at least get another hour and a half of sleep. A few minutes later, Kira came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her soaking wet hair trailing down her back, and droplets of water fell to the carpet beneath her feet.

"Will you please explain to me why we're up so early?" Ray asked, feeling a little irritated at his lack of sleep. His eyelids felt heavy, but he couldn't help but smile at her cheerful demeanor.

"Well, I'm not so sure why _you're_ awake. I kind of expected you to still be asleep." Kira's gaze drifted over to Ray while kneeling and sifting through her clothes in her duffle bag.

"Well I _would_ be had it not been for your alarm to wake me up." Kira smiled and looked in his direction, he was clearly not a morning person and was staring off into space in some sort of sleepy trance.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, I forgot about all that! I should have turned it off." She looked back down at her bag and picked out her outfit.

"What are you doing up so early anyways?" Ray asked her, fighting off another yawn.

"I have some errands to run before everyone else gets up."

"What could you possibly be doing at 3:30 in the morning?" He asked her, raising his eyebrow.

"Well when I'm finished getting ready, it won't be 3:30 in the morning. But if you must know, it's Kai's birthday today and I've got to go get him something."

"His birthday? Why didn't he tell any of us?"

"C'mon, you know him... He's not one to make such a big deal out of such a thing, plus if I can recall… it holds bad memories for him. But that is none of my business to tell any of you. Actually, it would really help me out a lot if you could do something for me." Kira stood and walked over to the bed sitting next to Ray who crossed his arms, putting on a face of rebellion.

"And why should I help you?"

"Oh stop being such a cranky butt." Kira leaned over and kissed Ray on the cheek. "Once you see Kai's face, you'll be glad you helped me. Plus I'll repay you later, promise." Ray lifted his eyebrow.

"And how will you do that?" Kira scrunched her nose and playfully shoved Ray before standing up and walking the desk opposite of the bed, grabbing a paper and placed it in Ray's hand.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, not like that!" She laughed, picking up her clothes and headed back into the bathroom to finish getting dressed.

"Well what do you expect when you're walking around half naked and all wet in a towel?" Ray murmured pulling on his pants and shirt over his boxers and headed out the door with Kira's list of items in hand.

* * *

Kira had finally finished getting ready, it was almost 4:15, and she didn't have much time before she had to leave.

She pulled her hair to the side in a fishtail braid with her bangs to the side as well. Her t-shirt was a baby blue pieced together graphic tee with striped bottom front, and zig-zag crochet detailing on back and top of the sleeves with LOVE. written across it in black ink. She also had on light wash jeans which she rolled up into capris and they had a bunch of damaged holes all down the pant leg, and she threw on some blue Toms to match.

She headed out the door climbing into her temporary jeep and headed out back onto the main island to go get Kai his surprise.

* * *

"Where is she Ray?" Kai asked with his arms crossed. Ray had stashed all the stuff that Kira told him to buy under their bed in her room. It was almost 6:30 in the morning and Kira still wasn't back, and she wasn't answering her phone. Needless to say, Kai was less than happy.

"I uh, I dunno. She ran off without telling me anything this morning." He shrugged avoiding eye contact with their leader. Ray was a horrible liar.

They all heard the door click open, and Kira peeked her head in, looking around.

"I'm back!" She said excitedly holding up a bag of breakfast tacos in her hand, and Kai paced over to her, an angry look on his face.

"Where the HELL have you been? We need to leave for the mainland in less than an hour." He pulled her inside and slammed the door behind her.

"Well I uh-"

"Save it, we don't have time for your excuses, let's go."

"Wait, no! I have a surprise for you!" Kira was bouncing on her heels excitedly, and Kai turned back to look at her.

"What?" He almost snapped, and there was a sharp tone in his voice.

"I know you don't like surprises...but I couldn't help myself. Surprise!" Kira opened the door, and smiled. There standing in the doorway was the very last person he expected to see.

"Luna...?" He asked incredulously. The girl was wearing a black and white striped long sleeve crop top that stopped short just of her ribs, and a high waisted black leather mini skirt that had a studded wrapped around her waist and stopped about mid thigh. She had her ombré'd hair down and in loose curls, with a small smile on her face and her amethyst eyes gleaming.

"Next time, try not slamming the door in my face..." The ombré'd purple haired girl rubbed her nose, and twiddled with her fingers, looking up at the birthday boy with a shy look on her face, and grabbed him in a hug which he slowly returned, still in shock. Kira smiled, seeing the obviously shocked look on Kai's face and placed her hands on her hips.

"Well I think that my work here is done. Happy Birthday Kai!" Kira exclaimed bouncing on her heels happily. "Let's get to the mainland," she looked around to her teammates. "we have a tournament to win!"

* * *

_Luna_

Being around the BladeBreakers while they had their game faces on was something I hadn't ever experienced before, they were all so different from the people I remember in Japan. They all lived and breathed beyblade, and when we arrived at the stadium on the mainland of Hawaii, they all changed from joking around and happy go lucky, to serious. It wasn't very much fun, but I was happy to be around Kai again.

There were so many teams here for the tournament. Apparently, people had been going up against each other since early yesterday morning, but the BladeBreakers weren't supposed to start battling until later today. The Lua Pele Lono's were up next to battle the Blading Nac's. Kira left the group who were watching from inside the waiting room to go get a glimpse first hand of these battles. It didn't surprise me that she wanted to watch Kahoru battle. She needed to prepare mentally for this battle, and fight her nerves that were eating away at her confidence.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Kai finally spoke to me after what seemed forever, and I turned to look at him with a somewhat confused look on my face.

"Well it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if I had told you..." I whispered, my eyes falling to the table in front of me. He stared at me for a few more seconds and then turned his sapphire eyes and attention back to the TV. He didn't seem very happy to see me here so I sighed, standing up. "I'm going to go walk around." He didn't reply, so I left the room and started to explore the stadium a little bit. I can only imagine he's trying to concentrate and keep his cool. My showing up randomly must have thrown him off a little, but he could have at least shown a little bit more excitement.

* * *

_Kira _

The Lua Pele Lono's were astounding, and that is putting it lightly. They crushed their opponents with ease, not even breaking a sweat, which made me nervous. Would we be able to defeat them? I asked myself, beginning to feel sick to my stomach.

There were five people on their team. Kahoru, their leader, who has a broken nose, and a bruised jaw. I have to remember to give Ray a big kiss later when I see him. He uses darkness as his power, seems fitting, doesn't it? Alana, the only girl on their team; she has very sharp features, intense green eyes and stark black chin length hair. She uses water as her element. Mano, a tall chubby blader, who uses fire and brute strength. Koa, an almost exact replica of Kahoru. He was there at the party that night, one of the guys who got into a fight with Kai. He has a black eye and is wearing a sling on his right arm, but still he battles. He uses fire as well. Finally, Makaha. He has dark and dangerous looking eyes. His body is extremely toned, and he's very tall. Just the sight of him makes me nervous. Soon, we will be going up against them. Soon, I will get revenge on Kahoru for everything he's ever done to me. Soon, Kahoru will wish he never set his hands on me.

"Excuse me, you are Kira Dickenson?" I heard an elder man speaking from behind me, and turned to look at him. He was about the height of my chin, chubby, and bad a black mustache and beard. He wore a suit and reminded me of my grandfather. I nodded, bowing in respect.

"I am Neil Abercrombie, Governor of Hawaii." The man walked forward and placed his hand on my back while we walked. "I have a favor to ask of you, Ms. Dickenson." His Japanese was very weak, and I smiled.

"Sir, I can speak English, you don't need to speak Japanese for me. What ever can I do for you?" I asked and he gave me a kind smile in reply.

* * *

_Ray _

I couldn't help pacing around the box where we were waiting to go up next. Kira still wasn't back and no one could find her. Why did she have to keep disappearing as of late? I looked over to the box across from us. There sat the Lua Pele Lono's. Kahoru had a smug grin on his face, and the rest of his team also stared at us, but I didn't care to learn the rest of their names.

"Stop pacing." Kai said from behind me. "You will give them an advantage over us if you do not calm yourself down."

I was just worried that they had done something with Kira again. It wasn't like he hadn't done something before. I glanced up in their direction, and then walked back over to the bench sitting next to Tyson. Luna huffed running into our box.

"And where have you been?" Tyson asked her, Luna's face was flushed as if she had been running for a while.

"The guards wouldn't let me in here! They thought I was some crazy, obsessed fan girl but thankfully our grandpa told them who I was." Luna shook her head taking the seat next to me. She was avoiding eye contact with Kai, and I wondered. Is she as bad of a liar as I am? She was definitely up to something.

Suddenly the lights went out and a song unknown to my ears started playing, but it was definitely some form of techno. I heard most of the crowd in the beystadium start to cheer and scream with excitement. And that's when I saw her standing at the top of the stairs parallel to us, a single spotlight shining down on her. Kira held a silver bedazzled microphone in her hand, and was wearing a completely different outfit from before. She was wearing a pure white twisted bandeau top with a matching white skirt that cascaded down to the floor extending back a few feet. It had slit down the right side that practically went all the way up her thigh, down to the floor showing off her leg. Her hair was down and wavy and she had a flower crown on her head made of white hibiscus flowers with a pink center. She literally looked like an angel. (The song she's singing is Clarity by Zedd, in case you want to listen.)

"_High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life." _ She slowly took a step down and the crowd around her stared in awe.

"WE LOVE YOU KIRA!" A random fan called out and she turned her head in the direction to smile at them.

"_Fight fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time." _Kira closed her eyes.

"_Hold still right before we crash 'cause we both know how this ends. A clock ticks' til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again." _As the beat hit her eyes opened and she lifted her head took another step down, and turned to a little girl who was staring up at her with wide eyes. The beat started to build up and everyone in the crowd got a little more excited, some were even singing with her. Was this why everyone knew about her?

"_Cause you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why." _And she took another step down towards the stage.

"_If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?" _It hit me, this was the song she was singing earlier in the shower. Laser lights shone across the stadium and Kira ran down the steps on beat, taking time to stop and dance with random fans and until she made it onto the stage and a couple of dancers dressed similar to her, but in crimson red, came to join her. I didn't notice it until now, but almost everyone was singing with her. (Minus us) The whole stadium was singing in unison.

"_Hey-ay, hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay. Heeeeey." _Kira rose her left hand and as the beat dropped again, BANG BANG, she pumped her hand in the air, as did everyone else.

"_If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?" _The dancers surrounded her in two different sections, and they all stood there, as Kira turned to look at us with a shy smile on her face.

"_Walk on through a red parade and refuse to make amends. It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense." _Kira parted her way through the crimson cladded dancers.

"_Don't speak as I try to leave 'cause we both know what we'll choose. If you pull then I'll push too deep and fall right back to you." _She turned to the crowd who were all jumping and dancing around.

"_Cause you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why. If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our loves insanity, why are you my clarity?" _She pulled the microphone from her mouth and once again, the crowd was singing with her, the middle of the stage started to rise as she spun around, with a huge smile on her face and tears forming in her eyes.

"_Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay…" _

"If you know the lyrics, sing along!" She yelled into the microphone, and a few hundred people cheered.

"_Why are you my clarity?"_

"_Why are you my remedy?"_

"_Why are you my clarity?"_

"_Why are you my remedy?" _Kira was singing, but it was so loud you couldn't even hear her voice. BANG BANG, she fist pumped again.

"_If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?" _She waved to the crowd and did a quick salute as they all screamed and she did a back flip off the stage in our direction and ran towards our box.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Tyson screeched as she ran towards us, and her eyes darted to Luna who looked away innocently.

"I don't know, _LUNA_. Do you have any idea about that?" Kira placed her hands on her lips, giving her cousin a pout and an accusatory look.

"Hey, who am I to keep you away from your people?" Luna held up her hands in an 'I don't know' manner, and Kira sighed.

"They are not my people Luna." Kira came to stand next to me, and I raised my eyebrow to her. It was as if she read my mind, because she whispered in my ear, "I'll explain to you later."

"Alright everyone! Who is ready for the BladeBreakers vs. the Lua Pele Lonos!?" DJ Jazz exclaimed into his microphone as he made his way on stage. The crowd cheered once again, as he laughed and held both hands up to us, as if telling us to send up our first competitors. Kai stood and began to walk forward but Kira bolted after him and grabbed his arm, stopping him. He sharply turned to look at her, anger evident on his face and she took a step back, her look never faltering.

"What? We've had this plan Kira, don't tell me you have some objection to it now."

"I…just have this feeling.." She whispered and looked back towards me, concern evident. "Send Ray up there."

"No way!" Kai crossed his arm over his body and glared down at Kira, then glancing back at me as I stood."

"Look who they're sending up, Kai… Alana. Something deep down is telling me that I know what's right. Please, just listen to me." She pleaded deeply, and maybe it was their secret connection that probably no one besides them will understand, but I saw him close his eyes and nod. "Ray, you're up."

* * *

_General POV_

Silence. Kira blocked everything else out as the final blow was given and Kai was declared the victor, and the crowd went wild. Cheers erupted from the stands, an extreme contrast to when Ray lost to Alana. They may have been the visiting team, but it was damn clear that the BladeBreakers were the favored ones here. Though really, who was to blame them? The amateur, although that may not be the best term, team definitely knew what they were doing.

"If you're not comfortable going up there Kira, we can send Tyson to battle." She had expected those words to come from Ray, not Kai. Maybe their ruthless leader did have somewhat of a heart inside that toned, muscular chest of his. Kira's eyes shot open as she looked up at Kai who of course had that stone cold stare on his face, but the tone of his voice was reflecting something completely different. She stood and shook her head keeping her eyes lowered to the ground.

"This isn't just something I need to do for the team, but for myself. I can't let the voices or actions of my past haunt me forever." She walked forward to the bowl, and she felt everyone's eyes on her. Everyone's.

"How nice to see you again, my dear." That voice was too familiar for Kira's liking and she felt like bugs were crawling up her skin. But she kept her eyes down, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her attention, he didn't deserve it. Kira reached into her holster and pulled out her launcher, twisting her blade into place. "Oh what, are you going to ignore me? Fine, have it your way Kira. You always were a stubborn little bitch."

Ray felt his nerves snapping, and his tolerance for Kahoru slipping away. Besides him, Kai, and Luna, everyone else on the team looked confused, for they remembered Kahoru to be the nice ex-boyfriend that Kira recently had a reunion with. But what no one else in the stadium knew besides Kira and Kahoru was the dark past that the two actually held.

"...alright bladers! Up next we have the beautiful and powerful Kira Dickenson battling for the BladeBreakers, and the ruthless macho Kahoru Takemaru blading for the Lua Pele Lonos! Rumor has it that these two are ex-boyfriend and girlfriend, so that should make this battle just a _little_ bit more interesting." DJ Jazz grinned. "On your mark, 3, 2, 1, LET IT RIP!"

And within seconds the blades were out in the rink. Kira focused her eyes everywhere but on Kahoru, although soon she realized that it was harder to concentrate that way. She only had one chance to win this war, one battle could change the destiny of the BladeBreakers to go on and face the All Starz, or go back home to their respective countries. This time, Kira decided she would win. This time, she would not let Kahoru take advantage of her.

"Kira, this is the one time I would advise to use your emotions while battling." It was Kai again, who was surprisingly giving her support and advice? When did this all happen? She let her pupils drift to the right and slightly turned her head so that she could see her teammates and the beyrink in her peripheral vision.

"I know you usually use great restraint while blading, but show Kahoru he doesn't control you anymore. Your parents don't control you. You control you." She closed her eyes, listening to the voices. This time, Ray was the one to speak. She felt her nerves running rampant and her childhood insecurities rising once again. But his words were somewhat of an assurance to her. She nodded and opened her eyes, as they deleted to her blade which was skillfully dodging all of Kahoru's advancements. Slowly they rose up to meet Kahoru's dark and brooding ones, which of course was matched with his smirk.

"Well well well, if it isn't your knight in shining armor stepping up to the plate to save you once again." Kahoru clapped and Kira glared in his direction. "But will he be there to pick you and your shattered remains off the ground after I beat you? Will he want you even when I show him you're a pathetic piece of-"

"Shut it, Kahoru. You know nothing." Kira cut him off, his words making her feel sick.

"Oh but I do know, Kira. You forget I know _everything_ about you. Your faults, your lies, your weaknesses..." Kahoru let out a small snort in laughter. "I also know that mommy and daddy wanted absolutely nothing to do with you, shipping you off to the nearest school that would take you. Don't forget Kira, I've been there for it all." Kahoru's blade slammed into Kira's, he realized he had caught her off guard, and that his plan was slowly working. "But also, don't forget that I was the one to introduce you to this sport. You should be forever grateful to me. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be standing here right now. What was that phrase? Don't bite the hand that feeds you?"

"Ha, introduce me? My grandfather is the Chairman of the _BBA_, don't think that you ever so graciously taught me everything I've ever known about beyblading. Sure, you may have given me my first blade and piqued my interest to the sport, but don't you think for a _second _that any of my ability or success is because of _you_." Kira's eyes glinted with a small flare as the anger built up inside of her, slowly threatening to release itself.

"Play innocent and try to pretend nothing ever happened, that's fine with me. But I will be the one laughing when you're down. Go Tenebris!"

"Draiga get him!" Kahoru's bitbeast was a black wolf, and his power was darkness, a complete contrast to Kira. The two blades collided, and like when Kira and Kai bladed, there was a force of energy that hit the two, though not as strong. Kira bent back and placed her hands in front of her face in an effort to block the blast.

"Come on Kira, this is pathetic. I thought you'd have me defeated by now. I guess it's a good thing that you have that bitbeast to hide behind, otherwise your skills are worthless." Kira growled in anger as Draiga's spinning leveled out.

"Kira..." Kai's deep voice of warning didn't even reach her ears as she was too focused on beating her opponent. She couldn't even hear the crowd screaming all around her. As far as she was concerned, the only two people in the room were her and Kahoru.

"I didn't need Draiga to beat you back then and I most certainly don't need her to beat you now." A dark glint crossed her eyes as she gave her ex boyfriend a smirk. "You'll really feel like a piece of shit when I beat you without even using my bitbeast." The blade darted back and forth dodging all of Kahoru's attempts to destroy her blade. Even though he had an advantage over her, she wasn't going to let him win. She couldn't. Her cerulean eyes followed her blades every move.

"Why don't you give up now? Your efforts to defeat me are futile." Kahoru crossed his arms, and the smirk that once crossed his face was there again.

"Why? Because I have teammates who _believe _in me, and I refuse to let them down. You may have once had an effect and control over my life, but that is all in the past. I'm burning my bridges and cutting my ties, Kahoru. ATTACK!" Kira's blade zig-zagged back and forth while spinning at full speed towards Kahoru's, and right before his eyes, his blade flew towards his face. The crowd's cheers erupted once again, and Draiga flew up into Kira's hand.

"And the BladeBreakers take this one! We're going to go into a short intermission, and once we come back, the BladeBreakers will be going up against the All Starz, stay tuned folks, you won't want to miss this one." Jazz talked into the microphone and camera with a dazzling smile on his face, and walked off stage once he was finished.

"Kira, that was awesome, I'm so proud of you!" Max ran forward and grabbed his friend in a hug, as she laughed, patting his back.

"Thanks Max." She smiled as they pulled away, but then frowned seeing his face. She turned to look behind her, and saw Max's mom standing above, watching them.

"Oh, we're going up against your mom's team next, aren't we?" Kira asked him, and saw him nodding slowly. "Don't worry, I'm sure we're going to be fi-...Max?" Kira's eyebrows furred in worry as he darted off, and down the hall, and she crossed her arms and turned back to look where Max's mom had been standing, but the woman was gone. 'Don't worry Max, I promise, we won't lose.'

* * *

**I hope you all enjoyed! I'm sorry about the delay in an update, I've just been so busy. Just one more chapter 'til they go to Europe! I am so excited for that, I can't even begin to explain to y'all. Well, thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed, don't forget to follow, fave, and or _review_. **


	8. American Championships Part II

**Hey guys! I hope y'all had a great weekend. I just got back from Houston and Galveston (in Texas) from a crazy family reunion. I was on the road a lot, so I had a lot of chances to write :) Also, I'm not really going to be putting a lot of detail into the BladeBreakers battles, because I know you all have seen them before, and I don't want to bore you! Without further ado, here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy.**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter 8: American Championships, Part II **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to BeyBlade, because if I did there would be no Metal Masters or whatever that ish is. And there would be more BladeBreakers, or G-Revolution. Whaaatever you wanna call it!**

* * *

Kira sighed watching her blonde haired friend as he ran from the arena of the stadium into the never ending halls. She turned to look at her teammates and saw Ray quickly approaching her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked once he got close enough, and she nodded, her gaze drifting back to where the Lua Pele Lono's had been. She bit her lip in a nervous manner and felt herself sigh.

"I'm fine, it's Max that I'm worried about." Kira turned back towards Ray, concern filling her eyes. "He saw his mom and darted off down the hall."

"I'm sure he's okay, Kira. Come on, I want to talk to you." Ray motioned his head to the same door that Max had ran out, and Kira nodded.

"Okay." She followed after him.

Luna watched the two with narrowed eyes and sighed, crossing her arms.

"I'm gonna go grab some food! C'mon Kenny!" Tyson grabbed Kenny by the arm, who screamed at Tyson's sudden actions.

"You almost dropped my laptop!"

"Oh your computer's fine! It's my stomach that we need to worry about..." Tyson's voice faded into the distance along with Kenny's yells of protest.

"Follow me." Luna had been in a trancelike state, lost deep in her thoughts as Kai's voice had brought her back into reality.

"Hm?" She saw him walk away from where she was sitting, and she blinked, confused. His actions had caught her off guard, but she stood, deciding it was probably best to follow him even if he _was_ being a colossal asshole.

* * *

Ray and Kira walked along the halls of the stadium, both had been silent up until this point. Luckily for them, everyone had the sense to leave them alone.

"So when were you gonna tell me that you're a recording artist?" Ray broke the silence, keeping his eyes down to the floor. He heard Kira sigh, and he turned to look at her.

"I'm not... Which is why I didn't tell any of you. It's complicated, but I guess I owe you an explanation. You at least deserve one, anyways." The two got to their destination which was a secluded area of the stadium, high above everyone and everything else and Kira leaned against the rail which looked out onto the a nearby beach as the sun was setting on the waves. "As you know, my parents never really were big on me beyblading. Hell, they sent me to a beyblade camp to try and destroy my spirit." Ray winced at her words and glanced over to look at Kira. Her eyes were glazed over, and it seemed as if her mind was on another continent, if not in another world completely. "A little over a year ago when I was in music class, our teacher had us all write and produce our own music. Well, my teacher was so impressed by my song, she contacted my parents and they sent out copies of the song to record companies all over. Of course, at the time and even right now, my interest isn't in performing or making music. Beyblade has my heart, but I will admit, I did enjoy performing for my fans."

"I'm proud of you Kira." She blinked her eyes and looked over at Ray whose eyes were downcast. "Not everyone has the strength to get through what you have. I mean that. You didn't have the support from your parents, but look at you. You're on one of the top beyblading teams in the world and you've beaten some of the strongest bladers out there."

"Ray, I can guarantee you if my grandfather wasn't who he is, you all wouldn't have even blinked an eye at me. I'm just lucky that he had faith in me. And you, even though you had no idea if I could really blade." Kira turned her head to look at Ray with a wry smile on her face, and he laughed seeing her expression, placing an arm around her shoulders.

"What can I say? I like to live on the wild side every now and then. Besides, you were too cute to pass up."

"So the truth comes out! You really were after my charming smile and good looks! Here I thought you liked me because I could blade and my dazzling personality." Kira fake sobbed, placing her face in her hands and Ray rolled his eyes.

"Oh stop being such a drama queen and kiss me." Kira spaced out her fingers so just her cerulean eyes peeked out and met Ray's golden amber eyes which were sparkling with playfulness.

"Why, Mr. Kon, you never told me you were so risqué, what if someone sees." She whispered placing her hands behind her back and took a step towards Ray so there was almost no space in between them.

"I'll kill them." Ray said those words with such a serious face and tone that Kira bursted out laughing, and Ray soon followed suit.

"Ooookay, as if." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and closed the distance between them.

"Sometimes I wonder how I put up with you." He grinned, lifting her chin and placed a soft kiss on her lips. His hands tickled the bare naked skin on her back which made her shiver.

"Please, you know you love me." Her face flushed once she realized what she had whispered, so she pulled his lips down to meet hers, not giving him a chance to react. He couldn't hold back anymore and released all his tension and worries about the day into the passion of their kisses, letting his hands get tangled in her two toned waves.

* * *

The two walked silently. Luna couldn't help but let her lavender eyes trail up to look at Kai who was at least three steps ahead of her. He hadn't turned to look at her since they were in the box from before. She felt herself growing insanely nervous at what could possibly be coming. Would he tell her he didn't want anything else to do with her? Would he tell her that she was too clingy? What _were_ they considered anyways? They certainly weren't boyfriend and girlfriend... His steps came to an abrupt halt, and Luna was in such deep thought that she almost ran into him. He pushed open a door and looked inside before grabbing her by her wrist and pulling her in and locking the door.

"Uhhh Kai, what's going on?" She asked, flushed by his sudden actions.

"I just wanted to get away from everyone. There's eyes everywhere, and who knows who I can trust." He murmured, crossing his arms and he continued to stare at the door.

"Look, if you didn't want me to come.. I'm sorry. I can be on the first flight home. It's obvious you don't want me here and I refuse to stay somewhere I'm not wanted." Luna's eyes flared, and she headed towards the door, and Kai grabbed her wrist again which made her turn to look at him. "Will you stop doing th..." She looked down in her hand where he had placed a little black box. Luna blinked her eyes before looking at him curiously, but of course he had his gaze averted elsewhere.

"Open it." Kai's ruby glare focused on Luna as she began to take the top off the box.

"Oh my... Kai they're beautiful." There were two yellow gold plated turtle earrings with black coral stones as the turtle shell and two diamonds for the eyes. "But it's _your_ birthday.." He shrugged, a small blush coming to his face.

"I had bought them the first day we were here.. I was going to give them to you when we got back but..."

"How did you even know I like turtles? They're my favorite animal..." Luna whispered still admiring the jewels, running her finger over the smooth surface of the coral.

"Kira hinted at it maybe ten or twenty times while we were in the shop. I swear, it's like she was four steps ahead of me. Every time I would go into a new section to look at something they would be sitting there." Luna looked up at him and laughed.

"Yeah, that definitely sounds like Kira. Thank you Kai. You didn't have to."

"You didn't have to come here either."

"But I wanted to."

"And I wanted to get you those." He retorted, and Luna grinned, grabbing Kai by his wrist and pulled him close. He looked down at her, caught off guard by what she had done, and he didn't catch her playful grin. She stood up on her tiptoes, placed her hands on his shoulders and carefully placed her lips onto his. She felt him tense under her touch, and squeezed him reassuringly.

'I wonder if he's ever kissed anyone before..' She peeked one eye open to look at him, and saw both of his closed. Then once he realized that she had pulled away, his rubies met her amethyst beauties .

"I'm glad you're here, Luna." He whispered leaning his forehead against hers. Her eyes widened at his admission, but then she smiled timidly

"...me too, Kai. Me too."

* * *

Max ran. The only thing he could think to do was run. It was one thing to see his mom on the television with some other team while she was supposed to be teaching at some college in New York, but her actually being here... It wasn't something that had crossed his mind. It was so strange to him. A feeling he himself didn't really know how to describe...

"...Max.." He heard his name being called, but who it actually was, didn't process. "Max!" He stopped in his tracks and turned, and there she stood. "You've grown so much..."

"Mom..." Max whispered as she took a few steps towards him. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be teaching at a college.."

"Well... plans changed... I got invited to work for the BBA, and it was an offer I couldn't resist."

"So why didn't you tell me! I would have loved to join you..."

"Please Maxie, you know your father." Judy crossed her arms, a smile on her face. "You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself."

"Well...yeah." Max shrugged.

* * *

"Ray.." Kira managed between kisses. She was sure her lips were pretty bruised, and if not they were getting there, thanks to Ray's catlike fangs. He made a muffled sound in reply, but made no visible signs that he was going to be done kissing her any time soon. "Raa-mmmff."

"Mmmm?"

"I." _Kiss._ "Need."_ Kiss._ "To."_ Kiss._ "Check on Max."

"Awww Kira, Max is a big boy, he can take care of himself. Besides his mother is here isn't she? And don't you owe me for helping you out this morning?"

"AND people are going to wonder where we are." Kira unwedged herself from Ray's arms and he sighed.

"Fine." Kira stood on her tippy toes and pecked him one more time.

"I promise I'll repay you, now's just not the time. I'll see you back out at the arena." Kira waved to him as she started walking out the door back into the crowded hallways of the stadium. "Now if I were Maxie, where would I be? ACK!" A pair of hands grabbed Kira and dragged her into a janitors closet, covering her mouth. "Ohh murf garfed.. Kamuru?!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to talk to you." Kahoru pulled a switch which made the light come on. Kira pushed his hand off her mouth and glared in his direction.

"And why the hell would I listen to you?"

"You know Kira, I've never known you to be ignorant. You may make some dumb ass choices sometimes, but you were never ignorant."

"As if you're one to talk..." She crossed her arms, and took a step back from him, hitting the wall behind her. She finally realized how small the janitors closet really was, making her feel just a tad uncomfortable. "What does this have to do with me anyways?"

"Your little boyfriend. He's not everything he makes himself out to be. His shit stinks too, Kira."

"Kai is NOT my boyfriend."

"I wasn't talking about him. Mr. Ting Tong Ding Dong." Kira narrowed her eyes and felt herself cracking her knuckles out of habit, although it may also have been that she wanted to deck Kahoru in the face. "Even though things were rough for us Kira, I've always cared about you."

"Oh yeah, was that before or after you mentally and emotionally tore me to shreds?"

"Hey, I made you strong! Look how well you handled it out there at the battle."

"Like I said, my success had absolutely nothing to do with you." Kira eyed the door and pushed past Kahoru, placing her hand on the handle.

"Just don't be surprised when he breaks your heart and goes back for that bubble gum headed twat." In the midst of turning the handle, she stopped herself. "It's obvious to everyone you're just a distraction while he's stuck here with the BladeBreakers. You don't really expect him to stay with you and the rest of your dimwitted team, do you? I seem to recall in an interview he said he was just doing it for the experience, does that include you too?" Kira growled and spun around sending her fist directly into Kahoru's nose. "Agh! God damnit Kira!"

"You shut your mouth, if I hear you speaking of my team in such a way again, it won't just be your nose that's dislodged. Understand?" She turned back around and twisted the door handle. "Goodbye and good riddance." She threw the door back and made her way out to find Max and his mom.

It took Kira a good ten minutes to locate her teammate who was now in the food court with his mom. Even though he had seemed upset earlier, she smiled seeing her friend conversing with his mom.

"Oh, Kira!" He waved her over. "We were just talking about you." Max smiled.

"Usually something like that would make me nervous, but..." Kira joked walking over to Max and his mother.

"Don't. Your skills are impressive. I've never seen a female blader with your intensity before." Judy stood holding out her hand to Kira, and Kira apprehensively took it. "Judy Tate, coach of the All Starz." Judy held out her hand motioning to the seat in between her and Max.

"Well, Ms. Tate, your coaching skills are impressive. I'm honestly a little nervous about our battles with you guys."

"Believe me, my team has our work cut out for us." Judy smiled. "But in all reality, I'm truly happy Max has found teammates that make him happy and that he can have fun with."

"Well in my belief and experience, a team has to be able to get along for it to work out, otherwise you're bound for tragedy and failure."

"You sound like you've dealt with something like that before." Kira nodded and laughed.

"Sadly. My previous team...well let's just say they don't understand the meaning of teamwork. It was kind of a free for all, but what do you expect from a team of a bunch of egotistical rich boys." Kira gave a throaty laugh and sighed thinking back to her old friends.

"You were on a team before the BladeBreakers?" Max's baby blues widened and his left eyebrow lifted in surprise. Kira nodded.

"It's nothing I'm too proud of, but they were really good friends of mine that I've been friends with practically since I was born."

"So kind of like Ray with the White Tigers."

"Eh, yeah I guess so."

"Allllright everyone! We're back and in a couple of minutes the conclusion to the exciting American Tournament will pursue!" Brad's voice echoed over the halls of the stadium and Max and Kira nodded to each other.

"That's right Brad, any minute now, the BladeBreakers will be going up against the All Starz!"

"We should probably get back to our team. It was nice speaking with you Ms. Tate." Kira stood and bowed to the woman.

"Please, call me Judy."

* * *

"It's about time you two showed!" Tyson jumped out of his seat on the bench as Kira and Max walked into the box.

"Excuse me, while you were watching out for your stomach, I was watching out for our teammate!" Kira crossed her arms playfully glaring at Tyson. Her eyes scanned her teammates and they landed on Luna. She grinned seeing the earrings and wiggled her eye brows at Kai who scowled and almost instantly looked away.

The first blader to go up was Tyson. He was battling the football expert Steve, who was a raunchy short guy with brute strength and a short temper, which rivaled Tyson's short temper. They ended up tying, and so then it was Ray's turn to go battle. If Kira had thought that Ray would have any difficulties whatsoever battling Eddy, she would have done it herself. Eddy was very tall, slender and a basketball player. His specialty was evasive movements, which probably helped him in battling Ray, because he took Ray out almost with no efforts given.

"Ray..it's okay." Kira said softly as she laid her hand on his forearm as he came to sit down, and he avoided eye contact with her, shame aimlessly eating at him.

"Yeah..." He sat on the bench with his arms crossed as she silently sighed and looked out towards the other side of the rink. There was the final opponent, Michael. Kai stood up to walk over to the beyrink, Dranzer seething in his hand.

"Kai maybe we should let Max take this one." The two toned haired girl spoke up, as Kai's steps came to a halt. He didn't turn around and didn't have to for Kira to know that he was annoyed. "I mean, it _is_ against his mother's home team... I think we should let him pull this victory for us."

"We only have one shot at this Kira, if he loses we're out."

"Have faith in your teammates, Kai. We all trust you, why not trust us?" Kai turned to look at Kira and Max who were standing side by side, and silently stared at them for a few seconds before nodding, and then walked over to the bench and sat down silently. A grin lit up Kira's face as she turned to Max and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You've got this Maxie. Show your mom that you're not just a little kid anymore. You know what you're doing! I have faith in you." Max nodded and smiled at her, their blue eyes locking before he turned towards the rink to meet his opponent. Kai's ruby eyes rose over to the girl as he silently watched her give their teammate a peptalk.

'I don't know what it was that made me want you on this team, but I'm sure glad I did...' He shifted his eyes over to the rink as AJ, Brad, and Jazz all began their commentary.

"Alright bladers! This is the final battle in the American Tournament, let's see who pulls out as the victors of this round. Will it be the sporty All Starz or the newcomers, the BladeBreakers!?" Jazz yelled into the microphone excitedly, his face beaming.

"I've got this.. I can do this for everyone." Max murmured to himself as he stepped up to face Michael, and the crowd went wild.

"MAX! MAX! MAX! MAX!"

"MICHAEL! MICHAEL! MICHAEL! MICHAEL!"

"Heh, seems like we've both got a pretty big following." Michael smirked at his blonde opponent, who nodded. "Well sorry, but I'm gonna have to steal away your fans."

"Alright bladers! When you're ready!" Both bladers prepared their blades and launchers, Michael's was a baseball in a baseball glove. "3, 2, 1, LET IT RIP!"

'C'mon Maxie.. you can do this..' Kira thought to herself as her nerves ran rampant as the bladers unleashed their blades.

The first round went to Michael, as Max hadn't been prepared for the baseball player's strength and obvious speed. But the second and third rounds, Max took everyone by storm, including his own teammates. It seemed he had learned a thing or two from Kira about letting your opponent think they have the upper hand, which of course came in handy at a time like this.

"AND THE WINNERS ARE THE BLADEBREAKERS!" DJ Jazz yelled excitedly as Max's teammates ran out on stage to congratulate him.

"Good job Max!"

"Way to go buddy!"

"I knew you could do it!"

"I'm so proud of you!" The blonde boy's eyes started to tear up from happiness as everyone surrounded him.

"Aww Max don't cry! Come on, let's get out of here and go celebrate!" Kira laughed and everyone else nodded.

* * *

"So why exactly are we going to a country club?" Luna asked Kira as she pulled on her shorts.

"I believe it's called a western club! You were the one who said you wanted to go and experience more American things before we leave. Besides, I don't think you can get more American than cowboys and horses. We're leaving tomorrow for London on a cruise, and then from that we'll fly to Russia."

"Have you even told the guys that we're leaving yet?"

"Well, we're not leaving until like three or four in the afternoon...and I think the cruise will be a nice surprise. But..Kai won't have any time to object to it if we just show up at the cruise line."

"Do you really think Kai would object to something like that?" Luna's eyes widened as she looked over to her cousin.

"Luna, you obviously don't know your boyfriend." Kira laughed. "If my thoughts are right, he'd deem it as 'a waste of time.' But little does he know that there's a training facility on the ship." Kira slipped into her cowboy boots and glanced into the mirror, looking at her reflection with a small smile on her face. It was about ten o'clock at night, and after about twenty minutes of begging, her and Luna had convinced the boys to go to a western club with them.

"Well I guess we should get going, we don't wanna make Kai anymore annoyed than he probably already is." Kira nodded at Luna's statement, grabbing both her ID and some cash and her cell. They walked the short distance to the boys' room and knocked on the door. It didn't take long for anyone to answer, as Kenny opened the door. Kira couldn't stop herself from laughing when she saw Tyson and Max dressed from head to toe in cowboy gear, from the hats to the boots.

"You guys look adorable!" Kira smiled after she had calmed herself. Max _did _pull off the look pretty well, while Tyson just looked plain ridiculous.

"Well you know, when in Rome." Max shrugged, smiling. Kira turned to look at Ray who was sitting on his bed, messing with his Driger blade, and she sighed. He hadn't said much to anyone after losing to Eddy, and she knew that he most likely wanted his space, so she wasn't about to bother him. He never took losing battles very well, and wouldn't respond to anything until he was ready.

"Well, if we're all ready, let's head out." Kira announced grabbing her keys from the guys' nightstand. Kai exited from the bathroom hearing Kira's voice and his jaw almost dropped once he saw Luna. Both her and Kira were wearing painfully short shorts, plaid shirts (Kira's was orange and pink, Luna's was blue and purple) that tied up around their rib cage, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats. Luna had her hair in two separate low pigtails that were curled, and Kira left her hair down and curled.

Ray heard the commotion coming from his teammates, and stood putting his blade away and slipped on his shoes. He finally allowed himself to look at Kira, and his eyes widened. 'Holy shit...' He felt his mouth growing watery, and his knees growing weak. 'Where did she get those shorts?'

"Alright y'all let's scoot our boots!" Kira attempted her best western accent making Tyson, Max, and Kenny all start laughing as she hopped her way over to the Wrangler.

"I don't think that's right..." Kenny shook his head.

"Let her have her fun!" Max laughed following after Kira, and Ray was still dazed as they all followed her. She stuck her keys in the ignition. Kira, Max, Tyson, and Ray all rode in the Wrangler and Kai, Luna, and Kenny all rode in the Audi.

Ray leaned forward in his seat while everyone was getting buckled in and whispered in Kira's ear, "you look beautiful." making her eyes widen and a slight blush appear on her face. She put the car in reverse and led the way to the club.

They arrived about twenty minutes later to the club entitled Cowboys. Luckily for them, the owners daughter happened to be a big fan of the BladeBreakers, so they got in within five minutes.

"Awwwwright! Oooh look there are other teams here! It must be a beyblade night." Kira beamed, a big smile on her face as she linked arms with Kira running inside. The dance floor was huge and made of wood with a live band playing. There were four bars each equipped with two bartenders, and a mechanical bull in the back corner. "Luna we have to try riding the bull!"

"I don't know, I uh, heard that's pretty dangerous."

"C'mon Luna, live on the wild side!"

"You know I'm all for living wild...but I think I'll pass on the bull. C'mon Kai, let's go get some drinks." Kai nodded silently as he and Luna slipped away from everyone else. Kira frowned watching them leave but then turned back towards the bull with a wicked grin on her face.

"Well Mr. Bull, it looks like it's just you and me." She walked up to the line for the bull and the rest of the boys leaned on the wooden rail, an amused look on their faces.

"Do you really think she's gonna do it?" Max asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, I really do.." Ray sighed. Soon enough, it was Kira's turn. She tapped her chin timidly as she looked at the bull which was much larger up close than she anticipated, and then after a few seconds of thought she swung her leg over and gave the guy operating it a thumbs up. It took her a few seconds to get the rhythm of the bulls movement down, but once she got it, she was riding it like a pro.

Luna and Kai walked back over to the group with their drinks in hand, and Luna laughed to herself.

"I can't believe she actually went through with it." Her eyes slid over to look at Ray who had his jaw dropped, and she giggled. "Looks like you're sweating just a little bit, Ray."

"N-no, I'm good." He stuttered, unable to speak correctly. He couldn't take his eyes off of Kira. There were cat calls throughout the crowd, and Ray turned away.

'I can only keep myself at bay for so long.. if I keep watching, there's no way I'll be able to control myself tonight.' Ray shook his head. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom." He walked away from the group and Luna smiled watching him leave.

"Kira, you sure are putting him through hell." She murmured to herself as her amethyst eyes turned back to her cousin. Kira flew off of the bull just as they turned it up to the highest speed. She rolled off the bull and raised her arms up in the air as the crowd cheered for her and she ran out of the circle, laughing.

"Awww Luna, that was so fun! You should go try it!" Luna handed Kira her drink, and she took a sip. "Do you wanna go dance?" Luna turned her head to look at Kai.

"Do you mind?" He shrugged.

"Go ahead." The boys sat down at the table as Luna and Kira set down their drinks and ran onto the dance floor, laughing. They were doing a line dance to Luke Bryan's Country Girl (Shake It for Me), standing next to each other at the front of the group, quickly picking up the steps to the dance. Ray walked back out from the bathroom, seeing everyone sitting at the table, he made his way over.

"Where're the girls?" He sat down on a stool, scooting it closer, and Kai pointed to the dance floor as he took a long slug of his beer.

"You can't keep them off the dance floor I guess." His eyes followed Kira as she and Luna danced next to each other as another Luke Bryan song came on, That's My Kind of Night. During the chorus, a familiar face came up to Kira and pulled her away from Luna, who shrugged saying it was fine, then went back to the table.

"Who was that?" Max blinked as Luna grinned with a sly face.

"It was Michael." She shrugged, sitting down next to Kai, pulling her stool to sit close to him.

"From the All Starz!?" Tyson exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"Uhh duh, way to state the obvious."

"What a traitor!" He scowled, as Kira and Michael came back into sight. They were two-stepping to the fast paced chorus, and Kira was laughing at something Michael had said. His hand was down by the belt loop of her shorts, which was just a little too low for Ray's liking. He glowered at the two, crossing his arms, his golden eyes flickering with the ever so famous green monster. Luna's gaze trailed across the table to Ray as she smiled, taking a long sip of her drink, a fuzzy feeling overcoming her.

'He is _so _jealous.' She giggled to herself.

"What's so funny?" She heard Kai's voice suddenly in her ear, and his hot breath accompanying that.

"Ohhhh nothing." Luna smiled up at him blinking her eyes innocently. He narrowed his eyes, obviously not believing her. "Kai, I'm sleepy." She yawned, stretching. "Can we go back to the hotel?"

"Yeah I'm sure you're _real _ti- OWW! Hey!" Kai smacked Tyson over the head as he began to mimic the two, and Luna smiled, laughing.

"Let's go Luna." Kai grabbed her hand and they began to leave.

"Bow chicka wow wow!" Max and Tyson called out, but Kai did his best to ignore them. Once they got outside he sighed, and Luna smiled up at him.

"You're not really tired, are you?" He asked her, and she giggled again.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." She walked next to him, her boots clicking on the asphalt. She grabbed the keys from his hand and ran towards the car.

"Hey, you're too drunk to drive." He called out watching her run ahead, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah and you're a party pooper, a slow one at that!"

"That's it." Kai picked up his pace, and Luna squealed, seeing him getting closer to her. She darted back to the Audi and grabbed for the door handle, but squealed again being spun around by Kai. He pinned her against the door, and she felt her breath growing ragged, not only from the running, but from being close to him as well. "Give me, the keys."

"If you want them, then get them." She dared him, staring up into his blood red ruby eyes, which as usual, had a dangerous flare to them. He stared down at her, expressionless, then as if out of nowhere, his lips were crashed onto hers. She gasped from the sudden contact, and he took the chance to attack her tongue with his. She felt herself give a soft moan into the kiss, as he grabbed the keys from her grasp. With her hand being free, she took the opportunity to grab onto the back of his neck. As soon as the kiss started, it had ended.

"We can't do this here." He pulled away, whispering roughly, and she slowly nodded. "Get in." He motioned to the other side of the car, and she nodded again walking to the other side and climbed into the seat. She lifted her hand up to her lips, and smiled. God, could he kiss.

* * *

Kira was still dancing with Michael as the next song came on. He seemed almost reluctant to let her go.

"You know, I didn't expect _you _to be so good." She looked up at him, and he grinned giving her a dazzling smile.

"I'm good at a lot of things you wouldn't expect." Kira laughed and rolled her eyes. "No, really though, I grew up in Texas. I moved to New York for college baseball."

"Ah, so you're a true cowboy then. No wonder you've mastered the two step so well. I really appreciate the dance lesson." Michael spun Kira out and then pulled her back in.

"It was my honor. You seem to be the one girl here who hasn't stepped on my feet all night." Kira shrugged at his compliment, although it made her heart swell. "You know, your boyfriend over there has been staring at us almost since I asked you to dance." Kira looked back at the table as he turned her around, and indeed, Ray's eyes seemed to be on them. Although, strange enough, Luna and Kai were missing from the table.

"He's...not my boyfriend." She looked down and sighed silently.

"Well you could have had me fooled, and the rest of the world matter of fact. You haven't been watching tv lately I'm presuming?" Kira locked eyes with him and shook her head. Michael laughed in response.

"They've been deeming you two as the world's 'hottest beyblading couple'. I mean, that may be part of the fact that you're the _only _beyblading couple, but regardless."

"We're not a couple." Kira reminded him, and he shrugged, dipping her back.

"Well, I know if I were him, I wouldn't waste any time scooping you up before someone else does." Kira blushed as he lifted her back up.

"I mean...it'd be nice if we had some kind of title or something. But I don't want to push him into anything he's not ready for. Besides, who knows what will happen once this tournament is over." Kira shrugged avoiding eye contact with Michael.

"Don't sell yourself short for anything less than you deserve. Women seem to have a problem with stuff like that these days." The song ended, and Michael's hold on Kira's body released, as he kissed the top of her head. "If you ever need a real man to take care of you, don't be afraid to look me up. Though, I won't be fooled with the way you two look at each other, people don't just find that lying around everywhere." He winked at her as he turned and walked the other way.

'What does he mean, the way we look at each other?' Kira turned and walked towards the table, sighing. "You guys ready to head back to the hotel? We've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Well Max is out dancing, some girl came and scooped him up, practically demanding that he dance with her." Tyson rolled his eyes as he digged into his nachos that he and Kenny were sharing.

"Kira.." Her eyes shot over to Ray as he stood and held out his hand to her. "Do you um...want to dance?" He had a small blush on his cheeks as a small smile graced her face.

"You don't have to if you're not comfortable with it, Ray."

"No, I want to." He nodded as she took his hand, and as if by cue, Touch by Josh Abbott Band came on, and she led him onto the dance floor. "I'm sorry if I suck, I haven't really had much practice..." Kira smiled, pulling him close.

"It's really not that hard, watch. You take one step, then two. One and then two." He had a little trouble getting a hang of the rhythm and accidentally bumped into a few other couples, but soon enough, he had gotten it. His hand tightened around her waist as they moved flawlessly through the crowd. He even dared enough to spin her out and then back into him.

"You have no idea how badly I want to kiss you right now..." Kira had laiid her head down on Ray's chest, as his sudden words made her eyes open, and she looked up at him. Then she saw it. The way he looked at her. She hadn't noticed it before. Sure, she knew that he had feelings for her, but his eyes held such a hunger and a desire she had never recognized.

Kira was feeling impulsive. Why not take a risk? Who knew if anyone would care, or rather, would anyone even notice?Everyone was so enveloped in themselves, no one dared to look around. Kira lifted her hat off of her head, and placed in on the side of her face where everyone else was, stood on her tippy toes, and placed her lips on Ray's. That electricity was back, and it hit her like a wild fire. She pressed herself against him, as he dug his nails into the naked skin of her back, and she sighed into the kiss. "Thank you..." She whispered.

"Well, kissing you isn't exactly a chore." Ray laughed as they pulled away, and Kira placed her hat back on her head.

"I meant dancing with me. I know you aren't exactly comfortable with it, but it really means a lot."

"If it makes you happy, then it was worth it." Ray smiled, leaning down, he placed his lips onto hers once again, pulling her back against him.

"R-ray... people might see.." She whispered against his lips, but he just deepened the kiss.

'I could care less...' He thought to himself, smiling.

* * *

**Alright alright. Any guesses on who Kira's ex-teammates might be? Haha, I think I gave some pretty obvious hints. Anyways, Europe will be coming up prettyyyy soon! Next couple of chapters, actually. As that stands, I am taking some requests for things to happen between Kai/Luna and Kira/Ray in Europe. I already have a couple of things planned out for Kira and Ray in Paris. Also, to everyone who is going/already went back to school, I hope you all have a wonderful year. I'm still taking a break from school. Trying to decide whether I want to major in teaching or interior design. I know, I know, so different. Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. Excuse my obsession with country music in this chapter. I mean, I am a country girl at heart :p**

**Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	9. Cruise

**All Around the World**

**Chapter Nine: Cruise**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BeyBlade.**

* * *

Kira stretched, yawning as she packed up the rest of her stuff in her suitcases. She tugged on her ponytail, tightening it and stood up. She was wearing a black BladeBreakers t-shirt, with white writing and aqua colored shorts with fringe and silver rose imprints on the right side with black and white tennis shoes. They would be heading out on the cruise later that day, and she had yet to tell her teammates, not being completely sure how to break it to them. Everyone else thought that they were supposed to be going on a plane back to Japan, but little did they know... She walked over to the mahogany desk that sat directly across from her bed, picking up a white hibiscus that Ray had given her and sniffed it, closing her eyes and remembering the night before.

* * *

"It's crazy to think that this is our last night here..." Kira whispered. They had snuck onto the beach, and it was around two in the morning. The two figured that there wouldn't be any practice in the morning since Kai and Luna had been nowhere to be found, and God only knows where they could have been. Ray nodded grabbing her hand as they sat on the wet soggy sand, watching the waves crash in front of them. So much had happened between them the past two weeks, and the time had flown by. He had to admit that he hadn't felt that close to someone in a really long time. Their fingers intertwined and he looked down.

"I know, everything's so different than when we came here, for everyone." Kira's eyes reflected the waves that crashed in front of them, the moonlight in the sky enhancing her every feature ten fold. "Ray, can I ask you something?" She bit her lip as her left hand played with stray strands on her shorts.

"Sure, what's up?" He looked over to her, tilting his head a little to the right out of curiosity.

"What...do you think is going to happen when this is all over?" Well, he certainly hadn't been expecting _that_ question. Okay, maybe he had, but not so soon.

"Well.. I mean, I'm sure we'll all stay friends," Friends. Sure, that's what Kira had wanted to hear. She felt a pang deep in her chest as she winced, but let him continue. "I mean, I can't speak for the guys themselves, but I know I'll never be able to forget you all. You've all really changed my life."

"Oh...well that's good. I'm...glad we could do that for you." She continued looking down to the waves. Ray's golden orbs bore into her skin, his eyes illuminated by the moonlight.

"But with you, I don't think we could ever stay just friends. I mean, I don't think we ever really were." Kira's heartbeat quickened at his words as she took a deep breath, standing.

'I hope you mean that Ray, I really do.' Kira began to unbutton her shirt and slipped off her shorts revealing her swimsuit as she made her way into the water, standing thigh deep as she let the waves crash into her. She stared out into the horizon, enjoying the peaceful sound of just the waves, the thin amount of seagulls in the air, and the wind that blew her hair back. She heard a small amount of sloshing coming from behind her as she felt a pair of rough calloused hands lightly touch her shoulders, slowly sliding them down towards her hands. He intertwined the fingers of their left hands, and with his right, moved Kira's hair off of her shoulder, placing a tender kiss on the hollow of her neck. She felt shivers running through her body as she closed her eyes, and felt the kisses slowly leading up the side of her neck to just underneath her ear.

"Ray..." She murmured taking in a deep breath.

"Think of this as payback for riding that bull earlier." Kira smiled leaning back against him.

"That was payback for being a jerk to me earlier." Ray wrapped his arms around over her shoulders and held her against him, placing a white hibiscus on her ear, and then turned her to face him.

"Well it worked, believe me." Kira giggled, smiling up at him.

"Hey! The beach is closed!" Kira peeked over Ray's shoulder and looked, seeing a cop standing on the beach, shining a flashlight in their direction. She groaned placing her forehead on Ray's bare chest.

"Let's go back to the hotel." They both walked back onto the beach, grabbed their clothes, and then headed back into the hotel.

* * *

Kira stuck the hibiscus back onto her ear and smiled.

"Are you about ready? All the guys are packed up." Luna leaned against the doorway to Kira's room, crossing her arms. Her hair was fishtail braided down to the left and her bangs parted the same way. She had only eyeliner and pink lipgloss which enhanced the color on her sun kissed face. Kira glanced up at her cousin and smiled slyly.

"You got in late last night. So what happened with Mr. Meaniehead?" Luna's cheeks reddened a little bit and she avoided eye contact with Kira. "Oh...my God you didn't!" Kira jumped up and squealed.

"We might have..."

"Oh my God! I want details, NOW! I can't believe that, I thought Mr. Meaniehead would make you fight for it."

"He did. Why do you think we were gone for so long? And why are you calling him Mr. Meaniehead? I've never heard you call him that before."

"Weeell, me Max and Tyson may have done a littttle bit of...hey stop trying to change the subject! I don't have a sex life so I have to live vicariously through yours."

"...that's a little creepy. And I think Kai would kill the both of us if he found out we talked about his life in bed...or the back of a car."

"Ohhh my God." Kira's face turned red, and she put her hands covering her cheeks. "That's more of my team captain than I wanted to think about."

Luna laughed and shrugged, "you wanted to know. So what's the deal with you and Ray?" Luna sat on the edge of the bed watching Kira finish packing.

"Look, I know you told me not to get involved with him, and I promise you, I tried. I really did. I just..."

"I get it Kira, don't sweat it.. I've been there. I just don't want this to turn into another Kahoru." Luna frowned, kicking her feet off the side of the bed.

"Ray is a completely different person than Kahoru, they don't even fall in the same category of human beings."

"Are you ever going to tell him about Johnny?" Kira stopped what she was doing and stared at the floor.

"What's there to tell? Nothing ever happened.."

"But it could have, Kira. We're going to be stopping in London for _at least _ a day. If the Majestics get wind of you being in town..."

"They won't! I mean, yeah they know about the tournament, but they don't know we're stopping in London to get to Russia."

"I'm just saying, if Ray's really as important to you as I believe he is, I would tell him before this information bites you in the ass. Johnny was your first love, whether you want to say it out loud or not."

"We never did anything Luna, you know that."

"I do...I mean, I don't know, I'm just warning you. You _know_ how those guys are."

"Of course I do, I grew up with them. They're family."

"You forget, you're _famous_ now. Anything and everything you do is going to be blown up and scrutinized by the world. Especially your origins."

"Hey, you guys about ready?" Max poked his head into Kira's room with a smile on his face. "Kai's getting impatient." Kira stood and wiped her hands off on her shorts.

"Yeah, just let me get my bags." Max walked in the room and grabbed one of Kira's bags.

"Let me help you."

* * *

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Ray asked from his seat beside Kira.

"Uhhh yeah, we have to take off from the Oahu airport this time, that's the only airport that flies to London from Hawaii." Kira nodded, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Oh..okay." Ray looked at her with some doubt in his eyes, but shrugged. He changed from his white tang, to a black tang(his shirt) and from blue pants to red pants. A complete contrast from his usual clothes, but it definitely made him look like a different person, and not to mention, it made his eyes glow a thousand times brighter.

'I just hope I can convince Kai to go on this cruise. It's not like it'll take away from our training...I mean we _have_ won two legs of the championships already.' Kira bit her lip as she looked over towards the airport quickly approaching. Right across from it were the docks to the cruise lines. She started to feel her nerves eating at her, and she looked back in the rear view mirror seeing Luna and Kai in the car behind them. 'C'mon Luna, work your magic.'

"Man, it would be so awesome to go on a cruise. I've never been on one before OR seen a ship so big.." Ray whispered, and Kira smiled to herself. They pulled into their car rental place and turned in their cars.

"Soooo I've got something to tell you guys." Kira bounced on her heels with her hands behind her back as she looked down at the ground. Kai's eyes snapped in her direction, and they narrowed upon hearing her words.

"...what?" Kai asked, a glare on his face.

"Umm so we're not really going to be going back to Japan."

"What _exactly_ are we doing then?"

"We're going on a cruise to Europe." Kira mumbled, but just loud enough for Kai to hear.

"I just don't get you Kira. Do you think this is a vacation or something? Another little pit stop on your world travels? Because it's NOT. We have things to do and people to beat. This isn't time to play around." Kai had taken a step forward and looked down at Kira with his ruby eyes flaring with anger, but Kira didn't back down either.

"Well Mister CAPTAIN sir, I'm _so_ sorry to have apparently stepped on your damn toes. We're not going back to Japan no matter what you want to do because _these_ tickets are already bought. So get off your damn high horse and get over it." Kira humphed, her eyes would be flaring red if they could change, but her ears had illuminated a red color enough to represent her anger. She slammed down the rest of the teams tickets on the hood of the Jeep Wrangler, took her luggage and made her way to the port. Max and Tyson blinked watching her take off and then grabbed their luggage and hurried off after her.

"Kiiiiiraaa!"

"Wait for uuuuuss!" Ray's eyes flickered with disappointment as he shook his head and grabbed his ticket, following after Kira.

"You do know she made sure that there were training facilities on the ship before she booked the tickets, right? Even I was a little surprised about her decision, but I agree that all of you could use some time to relax. And I do mean _all_ of you."

"We've already had time to relax. That's what we were doing here, relaxing." Luna sighed wrapping her arms around Kai's waist, and pulled herself closer to him. He admitted to himself he felt a little uncomfortable with all this close contact in the naked public eye, but it felt too damn good for him to really care.

"Yeah, when you weren't drilling them senseless! I understand this tournament is important, believe me I do, but if you, and these are Kira's words not mine, if you work them so hard what will to succeed will they have left? There's no drive in an empty soul." Kai sighed. He didn't want to admit it, but Kira was right. It didn't mean he was going to loosen his reigns at all, they were definitely still going to practice. He'd have to be dead before they could get out of that.

* * *

Kira stood wordlessly in line as the BladeBreakers waited to get onto the massive ship. The Oasis of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship built so far in history. All of the bladers stared in awe as they walked up the ramp, and made their way to where their tickets would be processed. (I've never personally been on a cruise before, so pardon if I get any of this wrong.)

"Ah, Ms. Dickenson, we have been awaiting your arrival. Your grandfather has upgraded you all to the Royal Loft Suite. There are five bedrooms in the suite and three bathrooms. Here are some keycards for you all to use, and if you all need anything, please feel free to ask for me, my name is Nicole. We are so pleased and excited to have the BladeBreakers on board the Oasis!" Kira smiled kindly to the woman, taking their items. "Your room is going to be on the thirtieth floor all the way down the hall, 3012."

"Thank you so much, I will gladly notify you if we need anything else." Kira bowed her head and handed each of them a key card and headed to their suite without another word.

"Royal suite..?" Kenny asked himself aloud.

"You know Mr. D, he likes to spoil us! Let's go check it out!" If he was wearing heels, Tyson probably would have been clicking them in excitement. They all walked to the loft suite and admired it in awe. There was a lounge, with two couches and a recliner chair with a large square black leather foot stool in the middle of the seating. There was a clear glass table with seating for eight right next to the glass door that lead to a private balcony.

"There's a piano..." Kira whispered walking over to it, raising the cover, and ran her finger along the keys, the cool feel to their ivory texture made Kira shiver.

"I'm sure we can go back and ask for a room without one, it shouldn't be a big deal." Luna walked over to her cousin and placed her hand on her shoulder, but Kira shook her head.

"It's alright.." She sat down on the stool, memories flooding back to her. "I haven't played in almost three years...I wonder..."

Ray and Kai finally entered the room last, and saw Kira sitting at the piano. Slowly, she started tested her memory by playing The River Flows in You by Yiruma. She started out slowly, but picked up the tempo. Luna sat on the bench next to her, watching her hands. Ray watched and listened to Kira playing, unable to move. He was certain he hadn't heard such a beautiful song touch his ears before, as Kira played it so flawlessly, he thought they were listening to a recording. Luna sniffled as she played the last couple of chords and Kira's hands rested on her knees.

"It was like listening to Sacha-oba-chan playing all over again." Luna wiped at the corners of her eyes as she stood and turned to the guys. "C'mon let's go explore this ship a little!"

"First one to the food court's a rotten egg!" Tyson called out as he, Max, and Luna all headed for the door.

"Hey that's not fair, you're all _by_ the door!" Luna whined and Kai chucked silently to himself as he followed them out, and Kenny followed after.

"...Kira.. That was beautiful..." Ray breathed as he took a step forward, and Kira turned to look at him. She smiled, and her eyes glistened with tears.

"My mom practically forced piano on me when I was little. I HATED it. But..now that I look back I'm glad she made me try it, because it connects me to her." Ray walked over and sat on the piano bench next to her placing her hand in his.

"Did she play?"

"Every day. She loved it. She used to write compositions, but dance came first in her life. My parents so desperately wanted me to follow in her footsteps. Join a dance company and travel the world doing ballet... I guess I made one of their wishes come true."

"Hey, you're a wonderful dancer, I'm sure you take after your mother. Besides, you deserve to live your own life, Kira. You may be their child but you have your own brain."

"You're right... It's just hard because I feel like they're disappointed in me. My father may have been a beyblade researcher, but.."

"Your dad worked in beyblading? And he didn't support you?" Kira nodded.

"He worked for the BBA, he was their top researcher and worked like ninety hours a week. We hardly ever saw him. That's why we moved to Japan because their main office is in Tokyo. He never really viewed beyblading as a girls' sport." Kira shrugged, looking back up at Ray with a faint smile. "It's sad, but what can I do?"

"Well I think you've more than proved them wrong. Let's go get a late lunch, I haven't had a chance to eat yet, and I'm starving." Ray stood holding his hand out to her. Kira smiled at his gesture and took his hand after closing the key cover of the piano.

"Yeah I'm dying to see what sea side entertainment they'll have for us. Let's go."

* * *

Ray and Kira met the others down in the open section of the ship next to the pool where they had somewhat of a café with sandwiches and that sort. They ordered they're food and admired the views of the endless open ocean.

"Kira can I talk to you, alone?" Kai suddenly asked, almost out of nowhere. Their food had just been delivered, and Kira had half of her sandwich lifted up to her face, her mouth wide open and ready to take a bite.

"Umm I guess..?" She replied quietly, setting down her sandwich. Her feelings were still slightly hurt from Kai's reaction to her news earlier, but she wasn't going to let that get to her. They both stood up and walked towards the deck. Luna and Ray gave each other a curious look, as neither of them were expecting that. "...what's up?" She asked as they got to the railing, her hair was being blown back by the gentle sea breeze.

"I apologize..about earlier." Kira's eyes widened and she turned to look at Kai. "I thought you were just fooling around by booking this cruise."

"Wait, you're APOLOGIZING?! I didn't even know that that word was in your VOCABULARY!" Kai's eye twitched in annoyance and he sighed.

"REGARDLESS, I want to thank you for your planning and thoughtfulness for the team. I agree, they could use some time to relax, it will do no good for us if they're tense and stressed out." Kira's eyes softened and she smiled as he continued to stare out at the never-ending sea.

"You really like her don't you? Luna's really began to rub off on you." Kira crossed her arms. "I guess that's another thing you can thank me for! If it wasn't for me, you would have never met her."

"Hn, yeah right." He paused before taking in a breath and looked at her. "I want you to be co-captain of the team."

"W-what?"

"If anything should happen to me during a battle, or I am incapable of being there, I want you to be the one to lead them to victory. You're the only one I...trust with such a thing." Kira felt her breath being caught at the out of her stomach again as she stared at Kai in disbelief. The word 'trust' was NEVER used by Kai.

"Y-you trust me?" Kai nodded, and Kira gulped looking down at the waves that crashed into the ship.

"Huuuuuggghhh..." Kenny ran over to the side of the ship and puked his brains out, his face was an unsightly green color, and he frowned. The two turned to look at him, and Kira walked over to him, rubbing his back.

"Kenny...are you okay?"

"Sea...boats...water...huuuughh..."

"Oh no... Do you get sea sick?" Kira frowned, and Kenny nodded slowly.

"I've never...been on a ship before today..."

"Hmmm I believe I know how to make a remedy for you, just give me a little bit to see if I can conjure up the ingredients. It may be a little hard though since we're on a boat..." Kira rubbed his back some more and sighed, then turned to look at Kai. "Can you tell the others I went to go get some ingredients from the shop? I'll be back in like twenty minutes." Kai nodded, walking back to the table where everyone was sitting.

"Hey, where'd Kira go?" Max asked looking around.

"Did you scare her off by yelling at her again?" Tyson accused, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Kai glared in his direction.

"No."

"She's getting stuff to make me feel better." Kenny muttered as he walked back to the table, sitting down and holding his stomach.

"Hey man, you okay?" Tyson asked, and Kenny shrugged.

"I'll be fine."

"I'm going to go check out the training facility to make sure it's going to be enough for us." Tyson and Max stood, nodding.

"We'll go too. Maybe we can get some practice in." Kenny stood as well, still holding his stomach and grimacing.

"I may as well collect some data from you guys while we're in there."

"Are you sure you're up to it, Kenny?" Luna asked him, her mystical lavender eyes filled with worry.

"Y-yeah... I just need to keep a bucket nearby." Luna nodded, picking up his laptop, and rubbed his back.

"I'm gonna go find Kira and tell her where we are." Ray nodded, standing and headed in the direction that Kira had left to.

* * *

Everyone made their way to the training facility, noting the fact that there was a wave runner, a rock wall, and a zip line all by the pool. They entered, and were amazed at how large the facility was.

"This room is bigger than my house!" Tyson exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. There were workout machines, eight beybowls that held different environments and arenas to train in, and enemy bitbeasts that you could practice against.

"This is AWESOME! Man, let's just practice here all the time."

"Excuse me, but I have this time slot reserved. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." A tall, slender man with slicked back purple hair and stern looking reddish-brown eyes stepped out from behind them with his arms crossed.

"Oh yeah, and who do you think you are? As far as I'M concerned, this beyblading facility is free reign buddy so you're just gonna have to learn to share!"

"I'm afraid you must have yourself confused. This training facility is for seasoned beybladers, not to be used by amateurs. My name is Robert Jürgens, I may as well own this ship. So I will ask you again, leave now or I will have you escorted out."

'Robert Jürgens...? Now why does that name sound so familiar? Not to mention he LOOKS familiar...' Luna frowned, digging deep in her mind while the two bantered.

"AMATEURS?! Oh you've got to be kidding me. You're looking at the BladeBreakers! We've won the past two legs of the championships, so I suggest you rethink your next words." Robert smirked at Tyson's reply and pulled out his blade.

"Well then, if you're as good as you say you are, you won't mind going for a little one on one, will you? If you lose you leave, and if you win I will allow you to stay." Kai crossed his arms, watching this 'Robert.' He didn't like the looks of him, not one bit. "But I don't expect you go be any good. I've seen your team battle on TV, you put me to sleep." Tyson growled pulling out Dragoon and twisted it onto his launcher.

"I'll show you!" The two ripped their blades into the stadium as people started to crowd around to watch the match. It wasn't every day you got to watch one of the star BladeBreakers battle live. The two blades slammed into each other creating sparks as the friction exploded between the two.

"Maybe I can teach you a thing or two." Robert smirked as Tyson growled watching their blades.

"It's obvious this Robert knows what he's doing. He's clearly a professional.. But why haven't I seen him before?" Kenny asked himself aloud, and Max nodded.

"He's really good..." Max whispered. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"I'm going to send you packing. You think you're so damn great.. Dragoon attack!" Kenny was typing on his laptop furiously as his eyes were as wide as his glasses, and his jaw was dropped.

"This guy is packing some serious power! This is outrageous!" He squeaked.

'I... I can't believe this... He's pushing me out!' Tyson stared with wide eyes as with one last shove, Dragoon was forced to the outer edges of the rink.

"Another win for me." Robert taunted, the smirk still stuck on his face.

"Not so fast. I'm not done yet."

"It is useless to try, you've already lost."

'That's it... Secret weapon time.' Tyson growled. "Dragooooon! Attaaaaack! Say hello to my BIT BEAST, bud." Robert's eyes widened and he took a step back as Dragoon came back with an unrelenting force slamming into Robert's blade. Dragoon was finally revealed, and Robert marveled in the bitbeasts' power but after the initial shock wore off, his smirk returned. 'I don't get it... Dragoon's not doing anything...' Tyson frowned.

"So you're a small fry with a big toy, too bad you're utterly useless. Grypholyon, attack!" The BladeBreakers gasped as Robert's bitbeast appeared, a very very large gryphon.

"Holy shit..." Max whispered, his eyes widening.

"That bitbeast is huge!" Kenny exclaimed.

'I knew there were ones out there like this... we just got our wake up call.' Kai's arms crossed as he watched the two. Luna gasped at the size of the bitbeast.

"How is that even...possible...?"

"Ha! What a fake, I know bitbeasts aren't nearly that large."

"Oh, but he's very real. Just watch and see." Robert grinned as Grypholyon slammed into Dragoon one last time and grinned as the blade flew out of the rink.

"Wh...wh..how..." Tyson fell to his knees in front of his blade and picked it up, staring with his mouth agape. Hushed whispers fell over the crowd as everyone watched and they all turned to look at each other.

"Kenny! I found the stuff to...oh my.. Robert?!" Kira's cerulean eyes widened as she almost dropped the contents of the drink she made for Kenny. 'Shit...'

"Kira..? Is that really you?" Robert looked taken aback, his usually dull eyes were filled with surprise and shock. His eyes fleeted down to her shirt, seeing the word BladeBreakers written across it. "Don't tell me you're supporting this team of _amateurs_."

* * *

**Alright, there's chapter 9! I thoroughly hope you all enjoyed! Any questions or comments, of course just drop a review! I want to thank those of you who _have _been reviewing! Y'all always makes my day. Have a wonderful weekend. **


	10. Discovering the Past

**I can't believe we're on chapter ten! I'm so happy to have y'all reading, and I just want to thank every single one of you for sticking with me through this story! I see this going maybe another ten, fifteen chapters, and then we will be onto V-Force and then G-Revolution! Eeeek. I already have a LOT planned for those two stories, a lot of angst, betrayal, and heart break! Hahahah, in the meantime, enjoy the BladeBreakers enjoying themselves ;) OH! And I decided to come to a happy medium for the whole Rated M thing. I will be posting the "Rated M" version of things on Adult Fan Fiction, but I will let you all know when that actually happens! **

**Enjoy!**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter Ten: Discovering the Past**

* * *

Kira nodded, smiling at Robert. "I am, and I'm proud to say that, Robert. How could you possibly call us amateurs when we've won two championships already? Have you not been watching the BNN?"

"I have, but I did not see you battling once. These people you call teammates must have bored me from watching anymore television." Robert yawned, patting his mouth with his hand, and Kira shook her head laughing softly.

"Well maybe I should show you," she pulled out her blade and tossed it up and down in her hand, "what you're up against. I haven't battled you in quite some time, and I'm very interested to see how much better you've gotten."

"How do you know this guy?" Ray asked her, his eyebrows raised.

"He's one of my old teammates." She told him as she walked forward towards the beyrink, and everyone besides Luna and Max gasped.

"What?! You were on a team before us?!" Tyson yelled in exasperated shock. "What a traitor!"

"How does that make me a traitor if...you know what, forget it. What do you say, Robert?" Robert's ruby eyes bore into Kira, a characteristic that oddly reminded her of Kai.

"Fine, but do not complain to me when you lose." Robert bent down and picked up his blade, and Kira's cerulean eyes narrowed as everyone went silent.

'There's that arrogant attitude again...' She walked forward as everyone formed a circle around them in anticipation of the battle. "I really don't think we'll have to worry about that."

'I'm interested to see what you'll do against old teammates, Kira. Will you falter as Ray did?' Kai watched them silently, as usual.

"How do Kira's stats stack up against this guy's?" Max bent over next to Kenny, eyeing the information that flew through his computer.

"It's hard to say right now. Once they start blading it'll be easier to read. Kira uses a different strategy every time she blades, and every time I've seen a different energy and power level." Kenny frowned, typing and then looked up to see Kira preparing herself.

"Did you know she was on another team before us?" Ray asked Luna as he walked forward to join them, handing Kenny the drink that Kira had made for him. Luna nodded, her amethyst eyes widening.

"You mean she didn't tell you?" Ray shook his head and looked down at the lavender haired girl and then over at Kira.

'I guess there's a lot more to her than I thought...'

"3,2,1" Max counted out for them, and the two ripped their blades simultaneously. There was obvious tension between the two as they stared each other down. Ruby eyes met cerulean beauties, and Robert smirked.

"Let's not waste any time, Grypholyon!"

"That's what I was thinking, Draiga, take him down!" The two blades clashed creating a wave of energy that flashed across the room. "You've gotten stronger... I'm impressed."

"Of course, you do not think we've wasted the past three years dillydallying, do you?" Robert's eyebrows furred as Grypholyon sent out an attack to Draiga but she dodged it expertly.

"Please, all you boys do is 'dillydally.'" Kira rolled her eyes. "Draiga Shockwave Pulsar!" That should have ended it...but Grypholyon was still spinning, strong.

"Maybe in the old days Kira dearest. But that was when we were young. Everything has changed since then."

'H-how did he just avoid Kira's attack like that? It should have obliterated him...' Kenny stared down at his laptop in shock, and looked up to see a look of frustration on Kira's face. Apparently she was thinking the same thing.

"I never doubted that you were a strong blader Robert." Kira shook her head as she stared down at Draiga who was spinning near her master. The blade started to glow and seemed to be letting out spurts of energy. "Actually, you're one of the best I've yet to face, which is why you took my spot when I left the Majestics as captain." Again, there was a gasp from her current teammates, but she half ignored them, letting herself focus on the battle at hand. "Yet you always seem to forget that I know your every weakness and strength. You may have changed as a person, but your blading is exactly the same. You don't know how to grow." Her blue eyes lit up with a look of determination and a smug smile slid across her face.

"You don't seem to have changed either, you're still the same teenage girl we all once knew."

"Maybe, but I'm definitely not the same blader you once knew. Draiga, Heavenly Strike Turbo!" Robert's eyes widened as he looked worriedly down to his blade below. He knew he didn't stand a chance.

"No! Grypholyon!" Kira's blade glowed a white as it started moving erratically around the beybowl, slamming into and smashing Robert's blade. Pieces of the blade started to fall of and disintegrate, as Kira moved in her hand in a crossing motion across her chest.

"Enough." Draiga flew back up into her hand and Robert fell to his knees grabbing his blade in his hand. Kira walked over to his side of the bowl and kneeled down next to him.

"I didn't want to destroy you, but I had to prove a point. The damage is not unfixable. I know you'll have your best people on the job." She placed a hand on his shoulder, as his ruby eyes met her cerulean ones. A small smile lit up her face. "It was really great seeing you again."

"You _are_ going to stop and visit everyone aren't you?" Robert asked her, and Kira's gaze was diverted elsewhere.

"Uhhh, we don't really have the time.. We need to get to Russia as soon as possible." She stood up along with Robert and she played with her hands behind her back nervously.

"You know Johnny would have a fit if you didn't at least stop by. And Oliver's feelings would never be amended."

"Oh they would be fine." Kira placed her hands on her hips making a face up at him. Robert certainly towered over her, being almost, if not more than six feet, when she barely reached five three.

"And Enrique, Lord only knows what _he_ would do if he ever heard..."

"He's got so many girls that he's wrapped up in he's good until he dies."

"That's not the point Kira and you know it." She blinked, suddenly feeling aware of everyone's eyes on them. "You're the glue that holds us together."

"Well you guys seemed to be doing perfectly fine when I went to visit Johnny in January!"

"...you were in Europe in January?" Robert asked, honestly in surprise. Kira's eyes widened, realizing she said just a little bit more than she should have. "That little hog..."

"Ehhh uhhh, I'm going to go lay down. I clearly need some sleep." Kira shook her head holding her hand up to her forehead. She walked out of the training room as everyone watched her leave, Luna's eyes narrowed following her dear old cousin out of the training hall.

"You never told me you went to go visit Johnny in January!" Luna whispered harshly as her and Kira made their way through the ship towards the elevators. Kira turned to look at her, a sad look in her eyes, but she kept walking.

"I had to go Luna... I had to get away from the media circus that was my life in Japan. Johnny asked me while he was visiting with his family for the funeral if I wanted to come back and stay with them for a while, and so I did. I don't think I could have mourned for my parents in the right way if I had stayed. Johnny helped me through it and I am ever grateful to him for it."

"So _that's_ why you were gone from school for like two weeks. Look, I don't blame you for needing to get away from everyone and everything for a while after all you had gone through because I would have done the same thing... but this thing between you and Johnny is a lot deeper than I had thought. You need to tell Ray before he misunderstands it as something else. He's extremely sweet and understanding, and I can't see him holding something like this, especially since it's completely out of your power, against you." The two girls rode their way up the elevator to the thirtieth floor.

"I know, I plan on talking to him about it, believe me."

"Especially since I believe now that Robert knows about you being in Europe, it is inevitable for you to run into the others and you know how they can be." They arrived back to the loft and Kira sighed, digging for her key.

"I didn't ask for _any _of this you know… it kind of just happened." Luna crossed her arms and nodded with a slight smile on her face, her beautiful lavender hair glowing in the sun that shone through the window.

"I know, Kira. You've been blessed with a wonderful curse. I'm sure Ray will come to accept it. He may not like it or even understand, but I don't think he'll resent you for it. He's one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. You got really lucky." Kira looked up at Luna and smiled.

"Believe me. I know. I can only hope this will bring us closer together and not drive us apart. I'm gonna take a nap, but I'll meet you guys down there later before dinner. I heard their hosting some sort of twenties thing.

"What do you want me to tell Ray if he asks?"

"I doubt he will because he still doesn't want Kai to know about us…but he can come up if he wants. I will in no way complain. I'm gonna move everyone's luggage to their rooms. Do you want a top or bottom room?"

"Girl, you know I always take top?" Luna winked and waved to Kira as she walked back down the hall towards the elevator.

"That was more than I needed to know!" Kira called out before scoffing in disgust and shut the door. Luna laughed and went back down the ship and found everyone lounging out on the deck near the large pool at the center. Well, Kai and Ray were there sitting next to Kenny. Kai and Ray both had their shirts off, with swim trunks on and Kai was sitting with Ray Bans covering his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. Luna laughed to herself as she saw some girls from across the deck staring at the two boys, giggling and whispering to themselves.

"You're going to get such a weird tan if you keep your arms like that. Where are Tyson and Max?" Luna asked, taking a seat in a lounger next to Kai, pulling his chair closer to hers. He grunted in response and Ray chuckled, leaning back in his lounger sipping on some sort of drink.

" Tyson pushed him into the pool, so he's kinda in a bad mood." Ray told her, and she shrugged.

"Nothing, any different than usual." She smiled, and saw Kai twist his head in her direction, and even if she couldn't see it, she could feel his death glare burning through her skin which made her laugh, and Ray joined her.

"Max and Tyson both went up there to zipline across the ship because Tyson feared for his life."

"He better keep both eyes open tonight." Kai murmured, cracking his knuckles which made Luna laugh again. No matter how hard he tried, he could not stay angry around her. It seemed as though when she just so much as entered his vicinity all feelings of anguish, sadness, anger, or stress just faded from him. The feeling exemplified with her touch. It was unexplainable to him. Sure, he'd been with girls before, but he never had a longing to be around them like he did her. He watched her from behind his sunglasses, feeling secure that she couldn't tell that he was watching her. She conversed casually with Ray and Kenny so _damn _easily. It honestly made him jealous. Not because she was talking with Ray and Kenny, although he definitely preferred her attention on him, but because casual conversation _was_ so easy for her. Though, he definitely never wanted to initiate it in the first place. He would never admit it aloud, although he was pretty sure she already knew. She turned to look at him, and smiled, and he secretly returned one as well. Damn, he'd been busted. But really, who could give two shits? He definitely didn't.

"WOOOOHOOOOOO!" Kai's eye twitched in annoyance as he heard two screams that were way too familiar for his liking.

"Woooah that looks like so much fun!" Luna stood and smiled as Tyson and Max flew past and above them down the tether line to the other side of the ship.

"You can't reach me up here Kai! HAHAHAHA!" Tyson yelled, clearly bragging that he was out of Kai's reach. But only for the time being. He definitely didn't feel as annoyed currently as he could have been, but of course, that was all thanks to Luna.

"Good GOD, if that isn't the most obnoxious thing I've ever heard…" Kai rolled his eyes.

"Aww c'mon Kai they're just having a little fun. Maybe you should try it for once." Ray smiled taking a video with his phone.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Luna smiled, watching Kai act annoyed. She knew for a fact he would never admit it, but he _was _having fun…and he also super top secretly loved his teammates. She was sure of it.

* * *

_The humming of the machines. The beeps continue repeating. Where was I? Where a_m _I? What am I? Who am I? I blinked my eyes open and looked around. Everything seemed so large, so big compared to my obvious small size. The last thing I remember… training… Kai…battle… Tala? Why? Who are these people? Bryan…Spencer… Giorgio… Kahoru…_

_Who are these people surrounding me? What is going on? I can't feel anything going on around me… every word they speak sounds muffled… _

_I feel my eyes droop shut as a wave of sleepiness drifts over me again._

OW._ A sharp pain in my neck. I feel my body start to flail around involuntarily. _WHAT IS GOING ON? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

* * *

Kira shot up in her bed, it was way past dark by now. She looked over at the little clock sitting on the nightstand next to her bed. She was drenched in sweat, and her breathing was ragged. It was three fifteen AM.

'Why didn't anyone wake me up? I missed dinner.' Kira frowned, looking over and saw a figure lying next to her in the bed, and immediately recognized it to be Ray. She smiled, and stroked his hair as he softly rolled over, groaning lightly in his sleep.

"Sorry, didn't mean to bother you.." She whispered, pulling the covers from her body and stood up walking to their private bathroom. She hopped in the shower and turned on the hot water and soaked herself clean. The hot water felt great on her aching muscles, an obvious side effect of all the training. After she felt satisfied, she climbed out and went to her duffle bag and slipped on some yoga shorts, and an oversized t-shirt she got in Hawaii. She brushed out her hair, and let it air dry, heading into the living room of the loft, and searched through the fridge. The closest thing resembling food was some fruit, which would make due well enough for her right now. She peeled the oranges and apples and snacked on them, which satisfied her small appetite for the time being. There was no way she was going to order room service this late at night anyways. She eyed the piano again, sighing heavily as she tried to focus on something, _anything _else in the room. She noted that it was raining. Kira found that comforting, she had always loved the rain. But her mind drifted back to the piano, and she couldn't ignore the pull to it. Her legs seemed to move on their own, and she found herself sitting at the bench of the piano once again. She lifted the key cover and once again found herself running her fingers over the smooth texture of the keys.

XXXXXX

Ray's keen sense of hearing caused him to wake, the first thing he heard was the angelic melodies of the piano from the living room. He cursed his ears and squinted his eyes shut, feeling for the sleeping girl next to him – except that she wasn't actually next to him.

'That must be her playing then.' He slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes to rid them of sleepiness. He had come in earlier, to come and wake her for dinner, but she looked so perfect and innocent sleeping there, and he also knew she hadn't been sleeping very well the past few weeks. So he decided to skip on dinner too, and took what he thought was supposed to be a short nap with her, but according to the clock was an eight hour one.

He quietly stepped out of the room and saw her with the lights dimmed, but she was definitely playing. There was no one he knew that could master those keys like she did. (In my head she's playing The River Flows in You and Kiss the Rain by Yiruma the Love Instrumental which has rain in the background) He bent over the balcony, and leaned his arms on the posts as he watched her, his golden orbs glowing in the moonlight. He felt at ease, listening to her play a different remix than the one he remembered. He made his way down the stairs and sat next to her on the bench, to which she slowed down and looked at him with a smile, but didn't stop. In fact she started playing her next song. (Kiss the Rain) He let his hand rest on her thigh, and closed his eyes.

"Ray.." Her soft voice stirred him from his deep meditation he had found himself in, and he realized she wasn't playing anymore.

"Hm?" He asked, blinking his eyes, and looked to her.

"I need to talk to you."

"Sure, let's go sit over there." He pointed to the couch in the middle of the room, and she nodded standing, and went to sit on the couch. He joined her moments later, and pulled her close to him, savoring this moment. They didn't get them often, but when they did, he never wanted to let go. "What's up?"

"…There's something I need to tell you. I don't know how you're going to take it, but I need to tell you before we get to London." Ray's breath caught in his chest as the possibilities of what it could be ran through his mind. He wasn't often insecure, but Kira had a habit of bringing out his insecurities. "Gosh, where do I even start… As you know, I was on a team before the BladeBreakers."

"I don't ever remember you telling me about that." Ray spoke into her ear, and his voice sent shivers down her spine.

'I don't know if he's doing that intentionally, but it's driving me nuts.' She pouted and shook her head softly, regaining her train of thought. "I did. On the first night, remember? When we were sitting on the porch at Tyson's?"

'Oh yeah… Does that make me a bad boyfriend for not remembering? Wait, scratch that, she's not even my girlfriend.' He nodded, her hand in his own, he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "Yeah… now I do."

"Well, they're all like my brothers. Their name is the Majestics. Johnny, Robert, Enrique, and Oliver. I've known them all since I was about two, our parents were all really good friends, and we kind of grew up around each other until I moved to Japan. Well, while I had a close relationship with everyone, I was extra close with Johnny. He's been my best friend since day one. Well, we "dated" for a few years back a while ago. I don't know.. I just didn't want you to think that we still have anything between us. We're strictly platonic now.. but Johnny and I do have a special connection."

Ray felt a small, tiny, itty bitty twinge of jealousy pull at his heart at that last sentence. "What kind of...special connection?"

Kira frowned, trying to figure out how to explain. "I... honestly don't know how to explain it to you. If I didn't experience it myself, I wouldn't understand. But basically.. we've been able to practically finish each others sentences, and sometimes it seems as though we can read each others minds. I don't know, like I said it's weird, and I don't know how to explain it. But when we battle together we can feed off each others energy... ever since I came back from that camp..." Kira's words trailed off, and she frowned, realizing she was talking in circles. "He helped drag me out of depression after my parents' passing... and if it weren't for him I may not be here right now. I just know that Enrique likes to tease us about it, and I didn't want you to get the wrong idea. I feel nothing for him more than friendship. Basically that's all I wanted to say."

"Kira, you know you talk too much, don't you?" She turned around and made a face at Ray when she heard the amusement in his voice, and he pulled her against him, laughing. "Don't worry about it, I don't have a jealous bone in my body."

"Well that makes one of us." Ray smiled, and pulled her lips to meet his.

* * *

**There's chapter ten! I hope I explained Kira and Johnny's connection correctly so I don't confuse anyone. -_- anywhooo, next they will be going to London, and then the craziness really starts :) I can't wait for you all to see what I have planned! Don't forget to review, and favorite and follow this story!**

**Oh, I also have another beyblade story posted. It's a little bit different than this one, and almost an AU fic. It's entitled "In Fate's Hands". Go check it out if you like!**

**BTW, I hope you all have a wonderful labor day weekend. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Arrogance

**Aggghh I had so much trouble writing this chapter, I dunnooo why. I wanna thank y'all for your continued support and awesome reviews. Y'all make me soooo happy! **

**All Around the World**

**Chapter Eleven: Arrogance  
**

* * *

Luna's eyes fluttered open softly, amethyst beauties peeked out underneath dark long lashes. She stretched in her position of sleep, rolling over to see a very sound asleep Kai laying next to her. She smiled slightly, taking in the thought of just how completely lucky she was.

Who would have imagined that her cousins' crazy obsession with beyblading would bring such a wonderful miracle into her own life? Definitely not her.

Even in his sleep, Kai was defensive and kept to himself. It was rare treat for her to wake up with his arms around her. As now, his arms were crossed, and he looked like he could be deep in thought, but she knew for a fact that he was indeed asleep.

It had been a challenge for her to get him to open up to her at all. Everything he held inside was protected intensely by a rock hard outer shell...and she didn't just mean his abs either.

She wasn't completely sure why he trusted her so much more than most other people, it's not like she was anything special. No, she knew she wasn't anything special, but Kai treated her like a princess in his own special sort of way. Anyone else would think he's being an asshole, but that's just how Kai is as a person. An arrogant, cocky asshole. A sexy, amazing one, mind you. She smiled and laughed silently to herself.

"Do you get off on watching me sleep or something?" Luna's eyes opened and she saw him staring up at her a curious look on his face.

"Maybe I do, what're you gonna do about it, Mr. Hiwatari?" Kai just stared at her with the same vacant expression without saying a word and Luna grinned. "Absolutely nothing, that's what I thought." He smirked and grabbed her, pulling her close to him within centimeters of his face, he planted a long, passionate kiss on her lips.

"I don't like when people watch me sleep. Next time I'll kick you out." He unraveled his hands from her waist and sat up, stretching. She sighed at the loss of contact, but watched him in all his beauty. His body was nothing less than perfection. She reasoned because of all the training he'd endured since probably before he could remember.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try. You're not getting rid of me any time soon!" Kai smirked looking back down at her, raising his eyebrow.

"Is that so?" Luna grinned nodding, pushing the covers off of her and got out of bed.

"I'm going to go order some food, did you want me to order you anything?" She reached for a hair tie, and tied her hair up in a high ponytail that made her lavender locks fall onto her left shoulder.

"No I'm fine." He shook his head and she shrugged walking out of the room and a small smile lit his face as he watched her leave.

Even in the morning, right after they woke up she was still damn beautiful, and all his.

Luna made her way down the stairs, humming a quiet tune to herself, her hair bouncing on her shoulder. She gasped and covered her mouth, a sweet smile crossed her lips as her eyes landed on the sight in front of her.

Kira and Ray were passed out on the couch, his arm protectively around her waist, her head resting on his chest, and their legs intertwined. It truly was one of the most adorable things she had ever seen, but Kai would probably be coming out any minute. "Kiiiiira..." She whispered harshly, eyeing the door she had just come out of. Oh, how they were _so_ lucky she came out of the room before Kai. "Kira!" Ray must have heard her, because he had shot up on the couch, knocking Kira to the floor.

"Ugggghh what the hell!" Kira groaned, pushing herself up, glaring at both Luna and Ray. "I was sleeping!"

"Yeah well Kai's going to be out here any minute." That made both Kira and Ray jump to their feet, a mad blush coming to both of their faces once realizing they had been cuddling on the couch.

"Thanks Luna. We were really careless, I owe you." Ray smiled as he helped Kira up off the ground. Speak of the devil, Kai exited his and Luna's room and eyed the three carefully.

"Oh good, you're up. Practice in an hour." He waltzed into the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

* * *

Three days later, after many fun cruise ship activities and the most intense practices they had encountered yet, they had come into vicinity of Canterbury and would be docking in just about an hour. Kira stood at the edge of the ship, leaning forward against the rail, her hair being whipped back by the waves, the salty scent of the ocean filling her nostrils.

"You look nervous." A deep voiced entered her ears as she felt a presence next to her, she turned her head and looked up with a small smile.

"You can't really blame me..."

"I did not call him, you know. Although, I feel he may realize you are here on his own accord. You two did always have a way of finding each other."

"Robert... I just.. I don't know. I don't think I'm prepared. The end of the tournament is coming up and we'll be going to Russia. I don't know if I'm prepared for that. I feel as though something bad is going to happen and I just..." Kira frowned.

"Do your teammates know of your apprehension?" His ruby eyes bore down into her own and she sighed looking back out at the sea, shaking her head.

"No. I did not want to bore them with my troubles."

"Kira, I don't think it's any trouble-"

"Let's just... move on alright? I really don't want to talk about that. I came out here to clear my head." Robert frowned at Kira's unwillingness to talk to him, usually she was so open...perhaps she _had_ changed? No...that wasn't possible.

* * *

Kira felt anxious as they waited to step off the boat onto the port. She continuously kept biting at her lip and fidgeted with her shirt, her luggage, and her hair, taking it down and putting it up in a ponytail once more. Ray saw her through all of this and frowned. If something had been wrong, why didn't she tell him? What was it that she was hiding?

Finally the line started moving, and while it took almost an hour, they were on solid, dry land. Kenny fell to the ground and began kissing it out of happiness, screaming words of joy and ignoring the looks of passerby's who glared that he was in their way.

"Someone's happy..." Tyson laughed at his friends' reaction, and Kenny nodded rapidly. Kira smiled down at Kenny, knowing how happy he was to be on land. Her eyes trailed up into the sea of people swarming around them, when they locked onto a pair of almost cold violet eyes, matched with maroon hair that stood almost straight up with a blue bandana wrapped around his head.

"Oh...my God..." She whispered, as the eyes lit up with humor as the boy she stared at smirked, knowing he received her attention.

'Miss me?' She heard his voice inside her head and her eyes widened, as her mind was brought back to Earth.

"Kira, are you alright?" Ray's soft voice came from beside her as he saw her drop her luggage, and dart off into the crowd.

"Johnny! Oh my God, what are you doing here?!" She laughed, launching herself onto her old friend who happily welcomed her into his arms.

If Ray ever thought that he didn't have a jealous bone in his body, well he was most definitely dead wrong. He felt a feeling that he had never _really_ experienced before, and he definitely did not like it. The group walked forward, and circled around them.

"Did you really expect me to ignore the fact that you're in Europe? Much less the UK? Come on Kira..."

'You're right...' She thought to him and he grinned pulling back from their hug. "Oh! Let me introduce you to everyone, this is Tyson, Max, Kenny, you know Luna, Ray and our Captain, Kai. Everyone, this is Johnny McGregor, my best and oldest friend."

"How nice to meet you all." Johnny nodded towards them, and Kira smiled.

"Well I don't know if you'd mind, but can you give us all a ride to the airport? We have a plane to catch to Russia..."

"Actually... I took the liberty of canceling your flights..." Kira's eyes widened and her hands flew to her hips.

"Johnny you can't be serious! You know I have places to be!" Johnny shrugged, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Think of this as an opportunity to travel across Europe and show your friends where you have come from." Kira crossed her arms and glared in his direction.

'I really hate when you do that...'

'You really expected me to just let you walk out of here without even saying hi? I am extremely disappointed in you Ms. Dickenson.' Johnny teased back and Kira sighed. Ray watched the two with narrowed eyes.

"Well if you guys don't mind, I guess we'll be taking a train to Russia instead." Kira sighed turning towards the others who had their eyebrows raised.

"Besides all the flights to Russia were cancelled. They seem to have gotten a flurry of random snow storms." Johnny crossed his arms over his chest, revealing the muscles hidden underneath his skin. "Funny how that happens in the middle of summer."

"Hilarious." Kai murmured, also crossing his arms. Kira's eyebrow raised and she sighed internally.

'This should be fun.' She clasped her hands together and smiled at her friends. "Well I suppose we should find a hotel to stay at, it shouldn't be too hard. We just need to exchange our money for euros, and head out from there."

"I assume _you_ will be coming with us." Ray looked at Johnny who nodded, and he too crossed his arms.

'What's the deal with crouching tiger over there?' Johnny asked Kira and she covered her mouth and so badly wanted to laugh, but maintained herself.

'Uhhh well that's sort of a long story...'

'Always the case with you, that's not really a surprise.'

'Hey! I resent that!' Kira turned her head and glared at Johnny who also turned to look at her and smiled. She just shook her head, and grabbed her luggage.

* * *

"Oh man! I can't wait to see all the hot London girls!" Tyson exclaimed as they left the port.

"Is all you think about Tyson, girls?" Kenny asked Tyson, his laptop tucked safely underneath his arm. Ray was walking protectively next to Kira, and Johnny on her other side. Kai was behind them with Luna and Max was up near Tyson.

"That and food and beyblading, but they kinda go hand in hand!"

"...no they don't..." Kira shook her head, sighing. Another day of senseless Tyson babbles. Oh, when would he ever find a girlfriend so she could tell him to shut up!

"Uhhh, yes they do! When I win a battle girls flock ALL OVER ME!" Tyson threw his hands up in the air and Kira stifled a giggle.

"I seem to recall them being all over Kai and Ray. You just so happened to be there." Tyson scoffed at Kira's comment and Luna laughed.

"Well I wanna go try some authentic fish and chips!" Max grinned, eyeing a restaurant nearby.

"Well how about this," Johnny chimed in, "your friends can go view the sights of London and other great British cities, you can come back to Glasgow with me and visit my family."

"I don't think so. She's on this trip with us, not you." Ray shook his head and Kira's eyes widened as she turned to look at Ray. Johnny's eyebrow raised, as he eyes Ray.

"And what are you, her keeper? Last I checked, Kira had a mind of her own."

'Oh boy...' Kira sighed again. 'There is WAAAAY too much testosterone in this vicinity...' Ray's eyes narrowed at Johnny's question and he glared.

"Maybe I am."

"Why would she ever allow such a peasant village lowlife such as yourself to command her life?" Johnny looked up at me. "Tell me this isn't true."

"Johnny!" Kira glared at her old friend and shook her head. "Get your damn head out of your ass! Let's go guys."

'Kira...'

'Stay out of my head, you're such an asshole. You'll never change.' She shook her head again, her eyes cold and vacant towards her old friend. Johnny stared, blind sighted by what had just happened. Kira had never put anyone, much less another guy before him and their friendship before. Who was this Ray, and why was he so important to her? He watched them leave. Kira couldn't stay mad at him, they got into arguments all the time, this would just blow over as usual.

* * *

"Ray I am so sorry...he had no right to-"

"No Kira, he's right. I have no right to speak for you. We come from two different worlds, we're so different. I hardly think I deserve to even be in your presence..." Ray sighed as he set their bags down in the room. He had barely glanced in Kira's direction and had been strangely silent since the whole Johnny situation. Kira's eyes hardened and she looked over at her teammate.

"Ray Kon, how dare you say such a thing!" His eyes shot up to her, and he was sort of taken aback by how angry she looked.

'I haven't seen her so mad since Beijing...'

"Don't listen to that idiot." Kira shook her head as her hands down by her sides balled into fists. "He's a stuck up jerk who only knows one way of life, and he had no right to make such an assumption of you. I am so so sorry. If anything HE is the lowlife." Kira sighed placing her hands on Ray's shoulders. "You are a magnificent blader and person. You don't need to come from high society and private school to prove that to me. I adore you for who you are."

"Kira, you don't have to try and make me feel better..." Kira growled and grabbed Ray's face, making him look at her.

"Ray, listen to me. If I thought any less of you than I do, if I didn't think you were an amazing person, I wouldn't be here with you right now. I'd be with Johnny in Glasgow." She reached behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding herself close to him. "But I'm here with you, because you're more important." She felt her face heating up to the confession, and Ray hugged her close.

"Thanks Kira." He whispered, and she leaned her head back to look up at him.

"Of course." She smiled and placed a soft, tender kiss on his lips. "Now let's go check out London!"

* * *

**Alright really, that's all I can come up with for now. Le SIGH.**

**I've been writing this chapter for like over a week now, and I'm just stuck. **

**I'll probably take a break from this story for a little while to get over my writers' block. **

**I do have a lot of ideas though, for Russia, and France. But I have to get through London first to get there. **

**Thanks for reading, and please review, they really mean a lot.**

**XOXO**


	12. Atop the Tower

**AN: Okay, I'm back. I know my break was a short one, but I finally figured out how to transition into this chapter. I really had no ideas on what to do for London, so I hope you don't mind, we're skipping right onto Paris. They'll be there for two or three chapters, then onto Rome, and then finally what you've all been waiting for, Russia!**

**I've also begun to start planning for what happens in V-Force and as well as G-Revolution. V-Force is probably going to be relatively short, but anyways, I'm rambling.**

**Enjoy!**

**All Around the World**

**Chapter Twelve: Atop the Tower  
**

* * *

"I'd like to welcome you all back to Late Night with Graham Norton, obviously that being me." The crowd surrounding the stage erupted into laughter as the short blonde male host stood up from his metallic chair, facing the crowd, a bright smile on his face. "For our guest tonight, we have a lovely young lady who is native to Europe, but has been traveling the world participating in one of the biggest competitions known to man, beyblading! I'd like you all to welcome Kira Dickenson!" The audience broke out into cheers as Kira walked onto the stage in a dark navy blue dress featuring semi-sheer floral lace waist cutouts with a round neckline and cap sleeves. Her hair was loosely curled and fell down to her bottom, her bangs pushed to the left side of her face.

She waved to the crowd with a bright smile on her face as she laughed as they roared with cheers.

"Thank you for having me! This is so awesome, thank you all so much." She bowed to them and sat on the giant red couch that was in the middle of the room. The cheers slowly died down and she turned to Graham with a smile on her face.

"I understand this is your first interview on television?" Kira nodded.

"Yes, it is, and I'm so ecstatic to be here. It's weird to me though, usually when I'm on TV, I'm destroying someone in a beyrink, so just sitting here answering questions is kinda strange." Graham and the audience laughed, and Kira felt a blush coming to her face.

"Let's talk about that, the whole beyblading sport. You're one of the top and fiercest bladers and in the world, you haven't lost a match yet, and not to mention you're a girl. That's pretty impressive, from what I understand." Kira laughed, holding her hand to her chest.

"You flatter me, Graham, really. But I'm not the only female blader out there, you know? There's plenty others who are as qualified to blade as I am."

"Well you don't see _them_ destroying every blader they come across, do you?" Graham winked to the television as the camera focused on him. "Let's watch some clips of you in action."

* * *

"Kira's doing really well out there, especially with this being last minute and all." Max commented as they watched Kira's interview from the green room in the back.

"Yeah yeah, I just don't get why they didn't wanna interview _me_! I'm the world champ over here!" Tyson sighed crossing his arms, a pout appearing on his face.

"You're not the world champion yet Tyson, sheesh!" Kenny rolled his eyes.

"Well Europe is her native land, and she did just finish debuting her music in America. She's starting to blow up all over the place." Luna smiled watching her cousin on the television, and Ray nodded, agreeing.

"Yeah, and besides you wouldn't look _nearly_ as good in that dress, Tyson."

* * *

"So tell us all a little bit more about your team and the travels, what is it like to go around the world with five different guys?" Graham leaned forward as Kira thought over her answer.

"Well, they certainly make it interesting to say the least." Kira laughed softly to herself as she thought back to the past couple of weeks. "They're all unlike anyone I've ever met. I suppose you could call them...quirky? Tyson's the overexcited, boastful one who always has to have the last word."

"Hey!" Tyson frowned hearing that, and jumped to his feet. "Who does she think she is humiliating me on TV like that?"

"You know, you're just proving her point." Kenny pointed out, and Tyson blinked, dumbfounded.

"Max is the cheerful one who you can always depend on and talk to about anything. He may doubt himself sometimes, but he has a fire inside of him that's just waiting to break out and stun the world. Ray's the calm, cool, and collected one who always tries to mediate things and keeps us all together. And Kai...well he's our leader. And while he doesn't talk much or always offer support, he pushes us to be the best we CAN be. That's why we've come as far as we have."

"Amazing, you seem really close to your teammates."

"Yeah, we're like a family. I don't know where I'd be without them."

"Now let's talk about your music, you seemed to be very well liked at that performance you gave at the American Championships, is that something we can look forward to in the future?"

"Ahhh, well you see that was very last minute." Kira laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. "My cousin actually planned that last minute while we were at the stadium, I barely had any practice before we went on."

"Your... cousin planned it?"

"Yes, my cousin Luna Nakamura. She's our biggest supporter, and my best friend." Kira smiled, as did Luna backstage who felt her eyes filling up with tears. "She's very visual, she's the one who helped me plan the performance last minute."

"Well then, I think Luna deserves a round of applause, don't you all?" Graham started the applause and many of the crowd joined in along with Kira. "So tell us, what kind of music are you into? Who do you listen to in your free time?"

"Well, my favorite song right now would probably have to be Berzerk by Eminem..."

"Ah, so you're a fan of rap."

"And Holy Grail by Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. I mean, I mainly listen to them while we're training or working out."

"I understand you probably have to stay very fit..."

* * *

"That was an awesome interview! You did great Kira." Max complimented and Kira laughed as she walked out of the dressing room.

"It was so nerve wracking!" Kira shook her shoulders, changed into a pair of coral shorts that had bunched silver pyramid studs above the right pocket and a black Pink Floyd muscle tee. Her hair was tied back in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck.

"You've got a natural way with words so I'm sure it was nothing." Ray crossed his arms with a slight smile on his face.

"I just bought the tickets for the train to Paris, let's get going to the station." Kai stuck his hand in his pockets as he walked into the hall, and the others nodded as they walked out to the car that would take them to the train station.

"So how exactly are we going to ride this train across the ocean...?" Tyson asked, scratching the back of his head as they pulled their luggage out.

"We're taking a train to the coast then we're taking a ferry to the coast of France, then we'll connect and take another train to Paris." Kira smiled pulling her bag out which was stuck underneath a seat.

"Why didn't we just fly? Wouldn't that be faster?" Max asked.

"True, but this way is much cheaper and you really don't get to ride a train through France and the UK every day. I promise you guys, it's worth it." Luna chimed in. She had her hair tied down in a loose bun, a black BladeBreakers hoodie and some yoga pants on, and left into the station with Kai.

"It's probably going to take us about nine hours to get to Paris, so I would suggest you all sleep on the trip. Kai'll probably want to start practice as soon as we arrive." Kira told them, and Kenny frowned.

"I just wish we didn't have to go on a ferry." He sighed and trudged up the stairs next to Tyson and Max followed suit.

"So this is the best way to travel across Europe?" Ray asked Kira as he helped her with the rest of their bags, and she nodded.

"It's a nice way to relax too. Plus, we'll get to rest on our way to Paris and then have a full first day's experience. I have a feeling we're gonna need it."

* * *

After arriving in Paris about ten hours later, the gang stepped out of the train station all of them stretching out their tense bodies.

"Wow look at this! I can't believe we're in Paris!" Max cheered and Kira smiled.

"_Paris_." She corrected him in a French accent with a wink, and Kenny's face lit up with a blush. "Nous sommes en Paris."

'I forgot she can speak French..' Ray's eyes widened. 'Shit, that's such a turn on...'

"We should go see the Eiffel Tower!" Tyson said excitedly, and Max and Kenny nodded. agreeing.

"Actually guys, I wanted to go visit someone... is it okay if we split up?" Ray asked, and Kira looked over at him with curious eyes.

'Who does he know in Paris?'

"Yeah sure, as long as we get to keep Ms. Translator with us." Max put his arm around Kira's shoulder and she laughed.

"Nice to know that's all I'm good for." She crossed her arms and fake pouted.

"Well how else are we supposed to pick up girls?! Heeello.." Tyson crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows as if stating the obvious.

"Actually I was hoping to take her with me..." Ray murmured and Kira's eyes widened as she turned her gaze to look at him.

"Y-you were?" Her face lit up with a slight blush, as did his.

"Did anyone see where Kai and Luna went? They just disappeared..." Tyson looked around, confused.

"They'll be okay. Luna's pretty fluent in French and if I remember, Kai knows enough to get himself by."

"Well what about us?!" Tyson exclaimed and Kira smiled.

"Just ask 'tu parlé l'anglais?' and you'll be fine! C'mon Ray." Kira grabbed his hand and pulled him off in the other direction. "I have someone I want you to meet too."

"Awww man, this sucks. We're gonna look so lame going to the Eiffel Tower with out any chicks!" Tyson pouted and Kenny sighed, rubbing his temples.

"Well... why don't we go check out some beyblade shops in the meantime?" Max suggested and Tyson let out a heavy over exaggerated sigh.

* * *

"Are you sure it's okay that we just left them without even saying anything?" Luna asked Kai as they roamed the streets of Paris. She had her hair tied up in a sock bun on top of her head with her bangs on either side of her face with a sleeveless white Georgette dress featuring side cutouts with black contrast trim and a contrasting black eyelash lace hem. Her heels clicked on the cobblestone path with every step she took, and Kai had his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. He was wearing a black hoodie with jeans and his black Ray Bans to try and play incognito.

"Do you _really_ want to be around Tyson all day? I had more than enough of him to last a month from those last two hours on the damn train." Kai grumbled and Luna giggled softly.

"Oh he's not _that_ bad. I think you need to loosen up a bit." Luna gazed up at him and he matched her gaze through his sunglasses.

"Only if you help me.." He whispered harshly as he pulled her into an alleyway and pinned her up against the building wall, pulling her into a deep passionate kiss. She felt herself lose her breath, and her heart started to beat rapidly in her chest. If it hadn't been for him holding her up against the wall, she probably would have lost her footing.

"Kai...we're in public." She attempted to remind him, but he just kissed her deeper, sucking her mind far away from where they were standing. 'Okay... obviously he doesn't care.'

"Hey! Isn't that Kai Hiwatari?" A female voice called out with a gasp, and Kai groaned, pulling away from Luna. He grabbed her hand and they fled from the scene of the crime.

* * *

"Who do you know that lives in Paris? You never told me you knew anyone..." Kira asked as she had her hands connected behind her back. She looked up at Ray who looked down at her with a devilish, playful grin.

"Kinda like how you never told me you were a pop star?"

"Ooooh that's so different and you know it!" She slapped him lightly on the arm. "Besides, I'm _not _a pop star."

"Whatever you say Kira." Ray laughed as they both heard a man grumbling to himself as he dumped out the trash into a bin that sat outside.

"Uncle Stan, how like you to complain!" Ray laughed.

"Stan, c'est toi?" Kira also laughed and then they looked at each other in confusion, and the man smiled brightly seeing the two.

"Wow, Ray and Ms. Kira! This must be my lucky day. I was just thinking about you two the other day! Guys, my nephew Ray is here, and Kira!" Stan crossed his arms as the kitchen staff ran out to greet the two.

"How do you..." Ray cocked his head to the side, looking at Kira questioningly.

"Remember how I knew a little Mandarin, and I told you I had a tutor back in Paris? Well.. he was the guy." Kira shrugged as Stan came over to grab the two in a hug, and they all entered the restaurant.

* * *

"What a wonder it is to see you two here together in person. After seeing you both on television it blew my mind how small the world really is!" Stan told them as they all sat down to eat, and they all dug in.

"Wow, this is magnificent. I never grow tired of your cooking, Stan. Ray, you also never told me you could cook! Why have you been making me suffer with pizza and take out." Kira fake sobbed as she stuffed her face, both of the Kon men laughed.

"Well I guess cooking runs in the men's genes in our family, what can we say?" Ray shrugged as he took another bite.

"Unlike my family where none of us can cook." Kira added in, not really speaking to anyone in general.

"So how is the competition going you two? You seem to be doing well for yourselves."

"Well, we're getting close to the end. We're heading to Russia after we get through Europe and we'll be competing in the finals." Ray answered and Kira nodded.

"We've been training really hard. I have no doubt in my mind that we'll do well." Kira smiled, and she looked up to admire the trophies and plaques that adorned the wall behind Ray's uncle.

"What is that?" Ray asked, quietly aloud, and Stan turned to look at the wall behind him.

"Ah, those are first prize metals from a cooking competition. We too, are the best of the best. I guess that's what happens when you cook French cuisine." The elder Kon joked, and Ray shook his head, motioning to a photo of a jade haired teen in a chef's uniform, also holding a first prize trophy.

'Olivier...' Kira thought to herself as her cerulean eyes trailed up to the photo.

"Oh that's Oliver, his father owns this restaurant and a bunch of other ones around the city. He's actually one of the best chef's I've ever had the chance of meeting. He's also the reason I met Kira, over there." Stan's eyes looked up at the raven haired girl. "Have you gotten the chance to see him yet?" Kira shook her head.

"No, but I plan to. I'm sure even if I didn't want to, I'd run into him. I always do." Kira sighed looking down at her plate.

"You know Ray," one of the other chefs spoke up, changing the subject; "if you ever get tired of beyblading, you could always come work with us. There's nothing like the satisfaction of cooking up a great meal!" Ray chuckled and shook his head.

"Sorry guys, but for now I'm gonna have to stick with beyblading. That's where I _really _cook." Kira smiled, and nodded.

* * *

"Oh wow, is this your restaurant?" Tyson asked amazed as he, Oliver and Kenny all walked inside, and Oliver nodded smiling.

"Well, actually it's my fathers' but, oui. It is.."

"Olivier!? C'est toi?" Oliver turned to see Kira walking out of the private dining hall with a guy he didn't recognize, but a big smile appeared on his face.

"Oh mon cherie, Kira!? Il a été trop longtemps! Quel tu fait ici?" (Oh my darling, Kira!? It has been too long! What are you doing here?)

"I'm here with the BladeBreakers, we're just passing through Paris...but how funny we were just talking about you. Oh.. Tyson, Kenny!" Kira looked behind Oliver and saw Tyson and Kenny standing behind him with their arms crossed and eyebrows raised. "Oh, I'm being rude. Oliver, this is my teammate Ray, and obviously you already know Tyson and Kenny. Guys, this is Oliver, from the Majestics."

Oliver nodded to Ray with a smile on his face and pulled Kira close, whispering in her ear.

"Il est mignon, Kira. Est-ce qu'il parle de?" (He is cute, Kira. Is he spoken for?) Oliver winked and Kira covered her mouth, laughing.

"Je suis sûr qu'il n'a pas balancer comme ça, désolé de vous décevoir! Mais oui, il est." (I'm pretty sure he doesn't swing that way, sorry to disappoint you! But yes, he is.) Ray eyed the two suspiciously as Kira and Oliver conversed, and she looked back at him and then laughed. He sighed, crossing his arms.

"You know, you're not going to find a girl out there like Kira." His uncle walked from behind him and Ray nodded, agreeing.

"I know.."

"I had my intuition when I saw you two on the big screen together, and the way you two look at each other..." Ray smiled and turned to look at him.

"Well... I was kinda planning on asking her to be my girl.. I just haven't found the right spot yet..." Ray fumbled around in his pocket as he looked back over at Kira and her friend.

"Let me offer a suggestion, if I may?"

"I'm all ears."

* * *

"So this raises your defenses, while lowering your speed because the rim is so heavy? Then what would be the point?" Luna and Kai were wandering the city, and Kai had found himself attracted to some beyblade shops in the shopping district. Luna had decided to educate herself in the sport sine most of her life currently revolved around it.

"True that while lowering your speed makes you easier to target, but if they can't get to your blade, then you have no problem." Kai spoke while picking up parts and inspected them. 'I know I saw an article for that piece somewhere here in this shop... it's gotta be here.'

"I just don't get it..." Luna sighed, slumping into a chair, watching Kai as he inspected. 'This must be what it's like when a guy goes with his girlfriend shopping for clothes.'

"That's because you've been around Kira and she practically relies on her brute strength..." Kai murmured and Luna sighed again playing with the skirt of her dress. Her eyes drifted across the shop as they landed on a black shiny piece of metal, she felt herself being pulled towards it, so she stood and walked over.

"What sort of benefits would something like this offer?" She asked, tracing her fingers along the edge of the defensive gear. Kai tore his eyes away from the piece he was inspecting, and they widened. He hurried over to her and grabbed the part from her hands.

"This is it..." He wrapped one of his arms around her waist and squeezed her in a deep hug and took the part of to a modification desk near by. "With this..no one will be able to beat me."

"I'm pretty sure you were nearly unstoppable before." Luna commented placing her hand on the small of Kai's back, and he gave a curt laugh.

"True, but this just reinforces that. Now even Kira won't be able to stand up to me."

"That powerful, huh?"

"It will be necessary for Russia."

"Are you... ready for Russia?"

"I've been waiting for it this whole time. Everything else was strict formalities. If I had a choice I would have just skipped straight through to the end and not wasted all of this extra time."

"It's always straight to business with you. Kai, you really should take some time to just enjoy yourself, otherwise life will just pass you by and before you know it, it's over." Luna sighed taking a step away from him and Kai stopped what he was doing to look at her.

"Have I not taken time away from training and blading to spend it with you? What are we doing right now?"

"Modifying your blade..." Luna looked down at the ground, sighing. "If I'm getting in the way of your concentration, I apologize." She took a step back and made her way towards the door of the shop. "I'll...see you back at the hotel."

"Luna..." He sighed as she left and turned back toward Dranzer. "This will be worth it...in the end."

* * *

"Where are we going?!" Kira asked, giggling. Ray had her blindfolded, and she felt nervous. She didn't like having one of her main senses cut off, especially in a city she knew that Ray wasn't too familiar with. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Believe me Kira, I couldn't miss it even if I tried, besides we're almost there so stop asking questions!" She heard Ray chuckling behind her as his hands rested on her shoulders, guiding her on her way to wherever he was leading her. She felt her heart pounding in her throat, at least that's what it felt like anyway, and heard the voices of the crowd around them quieting down. She felt gravity flowing against her body as she felt herself being risen up, figuring she was probably on an elevator or something.

"D'où nous-allons?"

"You know I don't understand French..." He sighed and she laughed.

"C'est pourquoi je vais continué à parlé jusqu'à ce que vous me disiez où nous allons!" (That's why I'm going to continue speaking it until you tell me where we're going!)

"Alright alright, we're here." She felt the motion stop, and he replaced his hands on her shoulders and led her forward. She could feel the wind whipping through her hair and the faint smell of bread baking in the background filled her nostrils. "Now I know you've probably seen this a hundred times... but I just wanted to do this somewhere you'd always remember."

'Do what...?' Kira felt his hands undo the knot of the blindfold and as the fabric was removed from her eyes, her cerulean beauties opened and a once familiar spectacular view of her home country graced her once again. "Oh Ray... I had almost forgotten how beautiful this view is..." She whispered as she leaned against the railing and closed her eyes, feeling the wind against her face. She felt him come in close behind her and felt a cool sensation on her chest as a heavy weight now lay there. Her hand instinctively went to the new object and her eyes shot open. Around her neck was a ring attached to a necklace. She lifted the ring to inspect it, and gasped. It was stunning, to say the least. It was large, most definitely a male's ring, sterling silver in color. A white tiger was wrapped around the band with the most intricate design was put into the detailing. Dead center of the ring was a yellow topaz stone, almost matching the color of Ray's eyes.

"Is this...?" Kira turned to look at Ray, still holding the ring in between her fingers.

"It's a family heirloom that was passed down and finally given to me...also one of the prized possessions of our village."

"Ray... I can't take something like this. It's too important." Kira shook her head and reached back to the clasp of the necklace, but he grabbed her hands stopping her.

"I wouldn't have given it to you if I didn't trust you with it."

"But we're not even..."

"Well if you'd let me get around to it." Ray laughed, and used his right hand to scratch the back of his head nervously. He felt his nerves starting to kick in, and took in a deep breath. "I've honestly been trying to find a place to do this, and I finally figured since we're in your home city that this would be the perfect spot."

Kira felt a blush coming to her cheeks as she finally realize what was happening.

"I've never felt so connected to someone my whole life, or closer to someone. In the short amount of time that we've been teammates we've become practically inseparable..and I don't want this to just end when this is all over, Kira. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I know that together, we can make this work."

Kira smiled reaching up to lay one of her hands on Ray's cheek.

"Are you...asking what I think you're asking?"

"From the moment I met you, you've done nothing but surprise me and wow me in the best ways possible... and I'd be the biggest dumbass if I didn't make you mine. So with that being said... Kira.. will you be my girl?"

"Ray, I'm surprised you even felt the need to ask." Kira laughed as she brought herself up to her tiptoes and their lips met in a soft, yet passionate kiss. "I am a little curious, though, how you got the Eiffel Tower all to yourself."

"Well, while you were in the bathroom at the restaurant, Uncle Stan and I asked Oliver for a favor.."

"Ah...Olivier, I'm not surprised."

"Although, when the man heard your name he was more than willing to help me out. Your family seems to be very well known here."

"I guess you could say that..." Kira shrugged, and then laughed as Ray kissed her deeply again and pressed her against the railing.

'What a perfect night indeed...'

* * *

**Okay, so there's chapter twelve! Finally Ray and Kira are a _thing. _haha. **

**So, I made Oliver gay, I don't know why but I've always seen him that way, it seems fitting to me, idk.**

**Please review, I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading.**


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